A Tris and Eric fanfic, Grey and Blue
by Divergent17Dauntless17
Summary: Eric was a former Erudite member. Tris was a former Abnegation member. They were both from factions that hate each other. Eric was a leader who was ruthless and misunderstood. Tris was an initiate who was underestimated. One day, Eric claims that both Tris and himself have to participate in an assignment for Max. Feelings get exposed. Read to find out.
1. Chapter 1

Edited-30/4/16

 **T R I S**

I looked down the massive gaping hole that lead to the members' entrance to the compound. The cut in my hand was still stinging from the ceremony. I was seriously considering backing down. What was I thinking to jump first?

The wind was blowing and goose bumps started to appear on my bare arms. I shivered. I could hear someone mumbling under their breath about how I was taking too long.

"The Stiff wont jump. The Stiff's going to chicken out." Some boy said. The boy emphasized a lot on the Abnegation slang. 

He had dark hair and his eyes were green. If he wasn't a total douche, than I would've considered him attractive but then his personality and his constant taunting got in the way. I tried to put on my most intimidating face and I turned to face the boy but then I realised that he probably won't take me seriously because I was wearing grey slacks. He snorted in my attempt to intimidate him. I broke off my gaze with him when someone gestured to the hole, telling me that I'm suppose to jump.

"Hurry up Stiff!" Some Dauntless-born said. Everyone was shocked at me, a Stiff jumping first, but it slowly turned into annoyance because of how long I took.

I took a deep breath. Im Dauntless now, right? I closed my eyes. It was just one step and it would all be over. I mustered up all of my courage. I needed to prove to the people behind me that I wasn't just a Stiff, especially to that green eyed boy. I took a step forward. A swooping sensation passed through me. My insides were flying everywhere in my stomach, in a good way I mean. The wind whipped through my hair and flapped all my baggy Abnegation clothes around. The cold air bit at my skin and it cooled me down from all of my nervousness. A blur of colours flew past me as I fell down the hole. I let a laugh escape my mouth. Adrenaline pumped through my veins and my heart was thudding loudly in my ears. I felt free.

Soon, the sensation ended as I collided into a net. I bounced right back up and I laughed, the adrenaline still in my system. My laugh echoed bounced off the stone walls of this underground place.

The whole 'jumping down the net' experience wasn't scary. I don't know what the other people were so nervous about. Now I proved them wrong. I was first jumper. Most importantly, I was braver then the Dauntlessborns and transfers.

When I stopped bouncing, I could feel the net dip at one end. I propped myself up on an angle and I saw that there was someone pushing one end of the net down. The person reached out a hand and I gladly took it. The person helped me off. I nearly tripped over but the person caught me before I would smash my face onto the ground. I realised that the temperature had changed and it was colder than it was up there.

It was a man. He had multiple piercings on his face. His features were arranged in a curious expression. His eyebrows were arched and his mouth was stretched into a faint grin. His grey eyes scanned over me in a calculating way. If he wasn't Dauntless then I would've assumed that he was an Erudite.

"A Stiff eh? We don't have many of you lot coming to Dauntless. I don't expect you to last here long." I scowled at the term he used to refer to me. I already had many people calling me a Stiff. They all called me a Stiff because they underestimated me because of my Abnegation background. I didn't need someone like him to smash my mood. I was starting to think that this guy was nice but then my decision changed. Before I could snap back a retort the man asked me, "What is your name?"

"Why should I tell you my name. You keep calling me 'Stiff'." I said with a sneer, my anger taking over. I clamped a hand over my mouth with realisation to what I said. Why am I acting so rude? If Abnegation was a person then Abnegation would be shaking its head at me, dissapointed at my actions. The change of factions was starting to have it's effect of me because now I knew that I could do anything I want right now, without the people from Abnegation scolding me.

I could see that the people around us were all quiet, watching the commotion between the man and I. It was obvious that no one ever talked to him that way before. They all had pity on their faces. I held in my breath, expecting the worst.

The man's grey eyes hardened and his mouth pressed into a very thin line. His expression washed over to an angry glare. "I am one of the five leaders of Dauntless and you shouldn't be disrespecting me or be rude to me. It would be the last thing you would want to do because I could make you factionless with a snap of my fingers and trust me, I dont think you would want to be factionless on your first day here, right? So let me ask you again, what is your name?" The man said with a deadly calm tone. It was scarier than being yelled at. A gut feeling told me that I should reply properly to refrain from something bad from happening.

"Tris." I replied,gritting my teeth. The man gave one last look at me and yelled, "First jumper, Tris."

The Dauntless around us yelled and stomped their feet against the stone ground and cheered. "Welcome to Dauntless." The man said. He put his arm on my lower back and not so gently guided me to the group of Dauntless people. Judging from all their facial expressions, they didn't seem to catch the man's threat. Whatever his name was, he wasn't going to be my friend.

 **E R I C**

First of all, I was angry and shocked at the Stiff's actions. I was a Dauntless leader and she had no right to be rude to me. It was even more shocking that she was from Abnegation. As I recalled, people from Abnegation don't get raised like this.

People got scared of me whenever I was around and they didn't dare to talk back to me. My power here in Dauntless ran completely on fear. If people weren't afraid of me then my power here would me equivalent to nothing.

I hated people who were rude to me. I hated the people who opposed me because it showed that they were brave and they weren't afraid of me. If they were not afraid if me, then I had no power over them. They were the people who were different to the others.

I helped some of the initates out of the net and I tried to put on the most initimidating facial expression I had so I could scare some of the initiates. None of the initiates thanked me when I helped them off the net so I assumed that my facial expressions was scary enough to make them not talk.

Four did the usual speech about the initiation process and I just hung around the corner, carefully studying everyone. There were 6 Candor transfers, 3 Erudite transfers and only one Abnegation transfer. I observed that she already made a friend, the dark-skinned girl who couldn't keep her mouth shut about Four's name.

After that, Four led them to the cafeteria. Everyone stomped their legs and rattled their cups but when they realised that I was with the initiates, they all slowly stopped. I had the effect on people. It made me feel powerful and strong.

I saw Max on the other side of the room and he beckoned me to come. He was standing near the other exit on the other side of the cafeteria. I had to obey his orders so I wandered my way through the tables and towards Max.

 **T R I S**

I noticed that the man, or Eric, had left with Max. Four introduced him to us as 'Eric.' Christina got our food from the line and we went to sit next on the only table available, the table with Four on it. He was eating his food and he payed no attention to us when we arrived. I sat down next to him and I started to pick at my food. I didn't know what Christin got me because the food was different from what I ate back in Abnegation. The thought of Abnegation brought a feeling to my stomach, almost making me unwilling to eat. I felt guilty because I knew that right now, my parents would be quietly eating without their two kids.

The doors to the cafeteria opened and Eric entered again. I guess that he came back from whatever he was doing with Max. The hall went silent and all eyes were glued to Eric. He was making his way towards my direction. My back stiffened and I sucked in a breath. I was silently praying that he wouldn't come to this table. I wasn't afraid of him or anything but then I didn't feel like speaking to him after he had threatened me at the net.

My prayers were not effective enough because Eric was making his way to our table. When he finally reached our table, everyone slowly started to go back to whatever they were doing.

He had a fake smile on his face. A smile didn't even look right on his face. His fingers were laced together.

"Hi Four." Eric said. His voice suggested that he didn't want to say 'hi' to Four but only wanted to do so to seem nice. Immediately, I knew that Four and Eric weren't on the best of terms.

"Do you mind introducing them to me?" Eric said, gesturing to all the initiates sitting on our table.

Four rolled his eyes and said, "This is Al, Will, Christina and Tris." He didn't even look up from his food. "Oh I know Tris." Eric said, his eyes meeting mine.

I stiffly turned my head to him. "Oh we only just met at the net, so you don't really know me." I replied, putting a small smile at my face. I mentally facepalmed. I would suit Candor because I don't have a filter over my mouth. Eric's head tilted slightly as though he was considering something. Whatever he was feeling, he was composed and he didn't show it.

E R I C

Four led them to the dormitaries and they all scrambled to choose their beds. I internally laughed at all of them. Just by looking at them, only about half of them would pass stage three of initiation. Only the determined and willing people would make it through.

Tris talked-back to me regardless of my threat. I swallowed. She was going to be one hell of an initiate. She was different to the other initiates. It wasn't just because she wasn't afraid of me. It was just a gut feeling that told me so.

I looked at Tris and she chose the bed closest to the door. Smart. Her dark-skinned friend, who I believed was Christina, chose the bed next to her.

I left them all to their sleep.

 **A/N : Hey guys. This is a Triseric fanfic and feel free to comment below my mistakes or any improvements I need to work on. Please vote if you enjoyed this :)**

 **Not many people agree with the Triseric ship but read this story and your view will be changed. :)**

 **I published this story a week ago but I had to pull it down to edit it a little bit.**  
 **-Steph**


	2. Chapter 2

Edited-25/7/16

 **T R I S**

I couldn't sleep last night. It was mostly because of the homesickness and the sniffing of some people crying. I could tell that most of the other people couldn't sleep as well. We were all sad and homesick. We all left our families behind and now we are in a faction where we don't know anyone. I could hear Al crying. His face was in his pillow and his soft cries were muffled by the thick pillow. I couldn't imagine someone as big as him crying. Everyone was trying to quiet down their crying, even Peter. We didn't want to seem weak in a faction that values the brave.

I recall Four telling us that the first stage of initiation would be physical. So, that would probably involve the usage of weapons and fighting. I assumed that I would need all the sleep I could get. I rolled over to my back and let out a sigh. I wondered what would I be doing right now if I had chosen Abnegation instead of Dauntless. Would I be happy?

No, I wouldn't be happy. If I was, then I would still be in Abnegation. But why didn't I feel happy in Abnegation, why did I feel like I didn't belong?

I closed my eyes and I tried to fall into the arms of sleep. Unfortunately, I couldn't. My mind was buzzing with thoughts. They were zooming around my head and some thoughts even merged together in my head.

My desperation to pass initiation was bigger than Russia because I didn't want to become factionless. I sacrificed my parents to come to Dauntless and being factionless would mean that I left them behind for nothing. I rolled over onto my left side.

Also, the word Divergent was ricocheting around my head. Why was being Divergent so dangerous. It made me so curious and frustrated that I didn't know whatDivergent was. I remember Tori telling me that being Divergent was dangerous. She told me that I shouldn't tell anyone that I was Divergent. Why is being Divergent so dangerous that I couldn't tell anyone, not even my parents.

The thinking was really draining me.

I soon fell into a slumber.

***  
In the morning, I woke up feeling like utter crap. My hair was in a dissarray and my eyes were crusty with eye boogers. My eyes were a bit swollen from the lack of sleep. I tapped my swollen eyes lightly to get the blood circulation in my eyes so it would reduce the swelling a little bit. My joints were hurting and I was cold.

I reluctantly got up and stumbled my way to the showers. I wanted to sleep and sleep was all I could think of. I took a cold shower, in hopes of the cold water waking me up. I tied my hair up so my hair wouldn't get wet. The water hit and rolled down my back. You could say that the water was hitting on me.

Once I was done, I got out of the showers and dressed in black clothes. I stared at myself in the mirror. I was skinny and I lacked of chest. The blacked clothes looked out of place in the usual grey clothes. I was wearing a singlet that exposed my collarbones and bare shoulder. It was a major difference compared to the oversized Abnegation clothes that covered all of my skin. I was wearing tight, long pants. Again, this was different in comparison to the baggy pants I had to wear back when I was in Abnegation. I just had to accept the change.

I went outside and I saw Christina putting on shoes at the base of her bed. She was wearing the same thing as me but then she cut her singlet in half so it was kind of like a loose crop top. She rolled up her pant legs so it went three quarters down her leg.

"Morning." Christina said to me. Her voice was still thick with sleep. Her hair was messy because she brushed it through with her hands. She pulled her shoelaces into a bow. She sat cross legged and she reached over to open my trunk and get my shoes out. She handed it over to me. I sat down on the cold, stone floor and I put my shoes on. I frowned when I realised that the shoe was too big for me. I had like 3cm space between my to and the tip of my shoe. I made sure to tie it tight so I wouldn't trip later on in the day. Christina waited for me and we both walked to the dining hall.

"Yesterday, I heard from one of the Dauntless borns that they are going to make us fight each other." Christina said.

"As in, punching and kicking?" I asked her.

She nodded in response. I mostly felt exhilarated over scared. The change from life in Abnegation to life in Dauntless was such a huge difference.

My wristwatch said that it was eight o' clock. Four told us to meet him in the training room after breakfast.

That gave us plenty of time to eat breakfast.

***  
I must say that the food was delicious in contrast to the flavourless Abnegation breakfast I had everyday.

Eric was sitting alone. Well he had other people on his table but then they were all huddled away from in. Their heads were turned in together, obviously showing that Eric wasn't included in the conversation. As if he sensed that I was looking at him, he turned his head and his grey eyes met mines.

His eyebrows raised up as tough he was wondering why I was looking at him. I decided to look away. My mind flicked back to the threat he gave me yesterday. There was no doubt that he was dangerous and had the power to make me factionless. That thought made me feel like not eating anymore. Christina and I decided to go to the training room.

We were fifteen minutes early and Four was already in the training room with Eric.

They were both on the opposite sides of the room, scowling at each other. The training room was huge. The ceiling of the training room stretched several metres high and there were chains suspended from the ceiling with bloody punching bags hanging off the ends of the chains. The punching bags had a two metre interval. The punching bags were crusted with dried blood from previous use.

Christina noticed the dried blood on the punching bags. "Do they not know about sanitation here at Dauntless?" She said with a snort.

"I guess so." I replied, chuckling.

Someone could get a cut and the dried blood might get into their cuts. If the blood has some sort of disease in it, then the person would be infected. I sighed. My Erudite was kicking in.

Soon, the training room filled with the rest of the transfers. They all looked around and gaped at the size of the training room, like I did when I first came in.

Both Eric and Four advanced towards us. "Today..." Eric and Four both started off at the same time. Eric glared at Four. "I will start off." Eric said with a commanding tone. Eric's tone made it sound like an order, not an option.

Four pursed his lips and reluctantly let Eric start off.

"Today, we are going to start stage one of initiation. Stage on of initiation is physical. This stage will involve a variety of physical related aspects such as hand to hand combat. You will also learn how to use weapons. We train our initiates to the toughest and bravest they can be. We are Dauntless so we have to prove to the other factions that we are brave and ruthless." Eric started off confidently.

In my peripherals, I could see Four roll his eyes at Eric.  
"We also train initiates to become brave, young Dauntless members that will stand up for one another. We will train you to have courage to perform ordinary acts of bravery." Four cut in. Now it was Eric's turn to roll his eyes.

"During your initiation, we expect you to give respect to the older ones and the people with more authority." Eric said, his words directed towards me. I felt like a small child who was under the glare of a strict teacher. Eric was reminding me about what he told me when I jumped off the net.

Eric and Four went over some rules. After literally an hour of talking, Four decided to start on the actual training.

I could tell that the first impressions of Four and Eric were already set. Everyone felt scared and intimidate by Eric. We felt like he was a tight string, ready to snap at anyone who doesn't make him pleased. Four was the calm and reserved one. Everyone seemed uncomfortable around Four but everyone preferred Four over Eric.

"I will demonstrate some simple and basic punches and kicks and you will all observe me. These kicks and punches are the basics of the basics so if this is hard for you, then you will struggle later on the physical stage of initiation." Four said.

He proceeded to walk infront of a punching bag. Everyone formed a semicircle around him to see him demonstrate the move. Eric stood on the side and he watched everyone like a hawk. Once every few glances he would stare at me, not in an admiring type of way but in a type of way to see if I was doing the right thing. It was kind of annoying but I decided not to show it.

"This is a called a punch." Four said. He quickly demonstrated. With the force of Four's punch, the bag swung backwards, threatening to snap off its chain. Four's fist connecting with the punching bag made a rally loud sound and it echoed around the big training room. "Show off." Eric muttered under his breath.

Four didn't show any signs of hearing Eric's statement. Four showed some more demonstrations and I carefully watched. I took down careful notes and I payed attention to the slightest of details. I watched how Four put his power behind the punch and how he stepped forward before he punched. He had one foot behind the other as his stance. I mentally took notes for future reference.

"Initiates now practice these moves on the punching bag. We'll get you to familiarise yourself with the moves. Then, Four and I will go around to help correct some moves. Get practicing because we will start pairing up people for fights tomorrow." Eric said. His voice washed over us in a commanding tone, making everyone obey what he was saying. Everyone moved to a punching bag.

I shivered at the thought of fighting someone and hurting someone. I could tell that other people were uncomfortable with the thought of fighting someone, besides Peter. He was smirking and looking around, laughing at the scared reactions of the other initiates.

I stood infront of punching bag down the right, next to Christina. Peter took the middle punching bag because he wanted to let everyone have access to watch him. I rolled my eyes.

The punching bag was bigger than me. I imagined if my opponent would be bigger than this punching bag. I recalled the mental notes I made when I watched Four's demonstration. I balled up my fists and I went for a strike at the bag.

MOTHERF-

I bit my mouth to stop myself from yelling out loud. My hand stung and tears were starting to blur my eyes but I quickly wiped them away. I didn't want people to see me cry. My skin was red and stinging.

I shook my head and tried again. I don't want to look weak infront of everyone here. I needed to prove to everyone that I wasn't just a Stiff.

I punched the bag again and I ignored the stinging pain that spreaded across my right arm. I adjusted my footing and I tried again. I tried kicking the punching bag. I nearly fell down in the process. I wasn't still use to the concept of punching and kicking.

This was so embarrassing, considering the fact that everyone was making better progress than me.

I spent fifteen minutes trying to punch and kick. Soon, Eric and Four both went around and tried to improve people.

I nearly laughed out loud when the expression on Peter fell when Four told him that Peter's stance was completely wrong. Finally someone shot down Peter's galaxy-sized ego.

I continued to punch and kick when Eric made his way to me. He stood aside with his arms crossed, studying me. "You're not going to pass initiation with a stance like this. Your stance is wrong and your toes are suppose to be lined up not behind each other. You stance is as strong has a flyscreen during a hurricane." He said in an annoyed tone. He said it as though he thought that he was more superior than me, which he was.

I stopped what I was doing. "I thought that the whole point of this is for you to correct me, not to insult me." I said to him, crossing my arms. The bravery to face him off like this just shot out me, boosted by my non-existent fear of Eric. I completely forgot about the threat he gave me yesterday. We were both mimicking each other. His eyes were slowly forming into a dangerous glare. I didn't want to back down from something like this, it would make me weak. No one was watching what was happening right now but I assume that in a few minutes, I would start to draw eyes over.

E R I C

"I thought that the whole point of this is for you to correct me, not to insult me." Tris said. She turned to face me and she crossed her arms. She was shorter than me and physically, she wasn't intimidating but her face was what intimidated me the most. I pretended not to be phased at what she just said.

Does she have a deathwish? I already warned and threatened her that being rude to me would result in me making her factionless.

She's probably stuffed in the head to have the bravery to face me like this. Four glanced over in our direction and worry glazed over his features. I could tell that he was deciding whether or not to come over but one of the other transfers just called him over for help.

She decided to not face me off and she resolved that by doing something else. She quickly arranged her stance so her toes lined up.

She looked up at me and she slowly shook her head while chuckling. "You just unintentionally gave me advice by insulting me." She said.

"So is this better now?" Tris said with a smirk on her face. I didn't reply. I frowned.

"Oh Eric, insult me again so I can improve from your unintentional advices." Tris continued. Who does this Stiff think she is?

"The purpose of me insulting you is so that you can notice your flaws. So therefore, you can improve more easily." I replied to her.

"You insulted my stance, I noticed my flaw and I improved it. Now what?" She said.

I stood up straight and I put on a neutral expression. "Use your elbows and knees to kick and punch. They work better because you are weak." I said. Now she couldn't go all smart-ass with me. What I said technically wasn't an insult as she was in fact, weak.

T R I S

Eric smirked when he saw that I couldn't come up with a reply to his advice. I followed what he said and I drove my elbow into the bag and I kicked the bag with me knees. I noticed that it was way more effective than what Four taught the class. After I was done, I felt someone come up behind me. My face immediately flushed red. I was obviously not use to the close proximity of another person. "Keep tension here." Eric said, his breath on my neck. He pressed a calloused hand against my abdomen, his hand stretching from one side of my ribcage to the other. After he detached himself from me, he retreated back against the wall and he leaned against it, observing all of us.

E R I C

I observed all of the initiates. I noticed that the Stiff made a huge improvement from when she started. Her face was plastered with determination and motivation. I observed the other initiates and I realised that Peter's stance was still wrong, even after Four had corrected him. I was to tired and I couldn't be bothered to correct him. I found that my eyes always found their way back to the Stiff. What made her so interesting. I had mixed emotions about her. I just don't know whether they are positive or negative. One part of me disliked her because she wasn't afraid of me. Another part of me found her interesting because she wasn't afraid of me and also because she was different to other people. I couldn't place my hand on it but she was the type of 'different' that could get her in trouble.

 **A/N : Okay Im sorry. I'll try to add more Triseric romance in it. I just like to take things slow because I find rushed romance very annoying.**

 **Thankyou to the people who commented last chapter! I really appreciate it! :)**

 **COMMENT**

 **-Steph**


	3. Chapter 3

Edited-30/4/16

 **T R I S**

Christina and I came into the cafeteria exhausted. It was clear that training had drained most of our energy. My arms were sore and I had scratches on my elbow. The joints on my knees felt heavy and my feet ached from standing too long. I quickly tied my hair back into a ponytail because I realised that some of the hair escaped the clutches of my black hair tie.

My emotional state was very dodgy right now because I was worried. I had completely forgotten about Eric's threat when I first came into the compound. He clearly stated that if I gave him some disrespect, then he would make me factionless.

 _I am one of the five leaders of Dauntless and you shouldn't be disrespecting me or be rude to me. It would be the last thing you would want to do because I can make you factionless with a snap of my fingers and trust me, I don't think you would want to be factionless on your first day here right?..._

I remembered everything he said. But in the training room, he didn't seem too upset about how I was talking to him.

Christina and I both got food and sat down at a table that was on the far side of the cafeteria. I ate my food and I was still getting use to the food here at Dauntless. Christina nudged me, "What happened with Eric back in the training room?" She asked me.

"What do you mean?" I asked her, stuffing my mouth with some food. Christina rolled her eyes. "When you made him look stupid. For a moment, I thought that you were suicidal. " Christina said, chuckling. "He just unintentionally gave me advice about how to improve when he insulted me. I just took his advice and made him look stupid at how he was stupid enough to unintentionally give me advice." I said to Christina.

"But you know that he was a former Erudite?" Christina said. I tilted my head. I didn't know that. That probably explained why he was always staring at things in a calculative manner. I heard some people say that after people transfer from another faction, they usually have their old faction traits stuck to them for a while. After Christina and I finished our lunch. We went back to the training room. I searched around the room and looked for Eric but he wasn't there. He was probably with the Dauntless-born initiates. We spent the next few hours perfecting our technique. Four later on demonstrated another few techniques. He taught us how to lift someone up and smash them to the ground. Four was reluctant to demonstrate it so he just explained to us how to do it. He also taught us how to block punches as well. Four told us to pair up with people to practice this. I paired up with Christina.

"I can't believe that they are going to let people flip each other like this. Someone could break their neck." Christina complained, clearly reluctant. "How about we start on the blocks first." I suggested. I decided that blocking would be more useful that flipping someone over.

Christina and I both found a spot in the training room. We chose the spot in the far corner, away from the rest of the people. I could see that Peter was paired up with Drew and he was flipping Drew without breaking a sweat. Peter was continously flipping Drew although Drew suggested many times that they should switch roles.

It was clear that Peter didn't care if Drew got hurt or not.

Christina started off by aiming a punch at me. My reflexes were slow so her punch caught my jaw. I staggered backwards. I gotta give credit to Christina for that one. Christina gasped. "Oh my! I'm sorry Tris! Did I hurt you? Do you need ice?!" Christina said, worried about my wellbeing.

"In a fight, you won't have time to worry about your opponent's injuries. One second of hesitation might cost you your life." A voice said from behind us. I didnt need to turn around to know who it was.

Christina turned around and the sudden sound. It was Eric. He was standing there, with his arms crossed. He must've came back from wherever he was. "What are you two doing? Continue." Eric snapped.

Christina and I both turned awkwardly turned around and continued to practice. I started off this time, throwing a light punch towards Christina's direction. I didn't punch hard because I didn't want to hurt her. She raised her forearm infront of her and blocked the punch. My hand stung from the skin to skin contact although it was a light punch.

Christina returned the punch but she punched so light that it didnt hurt at all when I blocked it. I heard someone make an annoyed sound behind me.

"Tomorrow, both of you are going to fight and I doubt that both of you can win a fight unless you practice properly. I am going to pair you up with other people." Eric said.

I was worried. What if he paired me with someone like Peter. I'd be limping out of the infirmary if that happened or worse, I'll end up dead.

Eric searched his eyes around the room and walked to a pair of boys. It was Will and Al. Will was a transfer from Erudite and Al was a transfer from Candor.

Eric beckoned Christina and I to come to them. Eric paired me up with Al and Christina got paired up woth will.

"Get practicing. You're going to need it." Eric said and he walked off to observe another group.

Al and I awkwardly faces each other. I decided to end the awkwardness so I introduced my self. "Hi. I'm Tris." I said, offering out a hand. Al smiled at me and replied, "I already know. I'm Al." He said.

We decided to start practicing to prevent Eric from splitting us and pairing me with another person.

Al was big and I was pretty sure that he was stronger than me. Al and I both started our blocking.

Al punched lightly. "Come on Al." I said. "I don't want to hit a girl." Al said, his face worried.

"Gender equality. Gender doesn't determine how you should treat a person. Punch me as hard as you would to Will. I need to practice with a real punch. We can both benefit from this." I said to Al.

"Okay. But if I hurt you, I'm going to stop." Al said. I nodded my head. Al started off with a kick and I blocked it by kocking his leg out if the way. It was a half-successful attempt because Al's leg was heavy and it kind of threw me off balance. Luckily, I didn't fall over. It saved me some embarrassment.

At the end of the day, by blocking and punches were improved by the slightest. I would need alot more practice to improve. I left the training room and followed Christina, Al and Will the cafeteria.

A/N: Hi guys. Thanks for reading this. I know that so far, its kind of boring but more stuff is going to happen in the next chapter

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	4. Chapter 4

**Hey guys. I am soooo sorry. I uploaded it and something must've happened and there was something wrong with the file so I had to upload it again. I am sorry, again so if you don't mind, you can re-read this chapter and the next one.**

 **T R I S**

I woke up, absolutely dreading what we were going to do today. Today we were going to fight and I had a high chance of being paired up with someone who was better and stronger than me. The worse thing was that I was nowhere near ready to fight.

"Will and Al! Into the ring!" Four called out. Al and Will both looked at each other. They were both worried. I could see why. They were both friends and whoever did the pairings was cruel enough to make two friends fight with each other.

Al and Will both stood opposite each other with their arms guarding their face. It was silent. Everyone was waiting for something to happen. Al was first to break the silence. "When do we stop?" Al said.

Eric looked slightly annoyed. "When one of you are unable to fight." He said it as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"No. You both stop fighting when one person concedes." Four cutted in. Eric rolled his eyes.

"A brave man acknowledges another mans strength." Four said.

"A brave man never backs down on a fight." Eric challenged.

Eric and Four were both facing each other now. They were both glaring at each other like what they did when I came into the training room this morning. They were so close next to each other that their noses were almost touching. They were both too stubborn to back down on a fight. I rolled my eyes. They were both like two primary school students, immature.

"You two do realise that there is a fight going on right?" I said without thinking.

I mentally facepalmed. I braced for another scolding or punishment. Eric was the first to break eye contact from Four to look at me. I was surprised that he didn't get a whiplash.

His eyes narrowed into thin slits. "Did I give you permission to talk Stiff?" Eric snapped. I could see in my peripherals that annoyance washed over Four's face for a brief second at the mention of the Abnegation slang term.

I didn't answer. Well, Eric did not give me permission to talk. "Stiff! Are you deaf? Answer me!" Eric said although I could see a hint of amusement in his grey pools. Or was that my imagination?

"Well, you didn't exactly give me permission to talk before so I didn't answer." I said lifting an eyebrow.

"Shots fired." Someone yelled.

I could see Eric's face flush with a mixture of anger and embarrassment.

"Watch your mouth." Eric said in a deadly calm tone, like the tone he used to threaten me after I jumped down the net. He gave me one last look and turned around to the fight at hand.

**  
Al and Will's fight ended with Al winning. Al was worried about Will's state because Will was unconscious.

Molly and Christina's fight was bloody. Molly was beating up Christina while Christina was curled up into a fetal position on the ground with her arm sticking out for protection.

I was using all of my willpower to not jump and and physically stop the fight. It killed me to see my best friend being beat up. I was about to yell stop when someone said, "Stop." It was Christina. She was barely alive and she coughed out some blood. I wanted to rush and help her but I knew that I couldn't. "Stop?" Eric said. I could see trouble mixing up.

I absolutely couldn't believe it. Eric made Christina hang over the chasm for five minutes. I gritted my teeth and I balled my fists up, my nails piercing into the bottom of my palms. Eric was so Satanlike enough to nearly kill Christina. It pushed me. I loathed him. I hated him. He was crueller than Hitler. The thought of him made me growl in a very unlady like manner.

Everyone around me was now careful around Eric because they knew what he was capable of. The next fight was between Peter and Drew. Peter fought like a savage and hungry animal. He was beating up Drew unmercifully although Drew was one of his lackeys. It was obvious that Peter won. Edward and Myra's fight ended quickly with Edward winning.

At the end of the day, Eric and Four dismissed us. I had to stay back and tie my shoelaces up. I realised that everyone was gone exept for Eric. I sighed and I tried my best to get out of the room.

I was about to exit the door when he stopped me with a hand to my shoulder. "Get your hand off me!" I snapped. He quickly retracted his hands away from my shoulder.

I tried walking past him again but he stopped me. "What do you want?" I asked him.

I looked at Eric he still had his intimidating façade on but I could see a little bit of uneasiness in his eyes as if he was unsure of something.

"Due to recent changes, Max has set up an assignment for me and it includes you and I." Eric said, pausing to see my reaction. I squinted my eyes in suspicion. I recognised Max as the most powerful Dauntless leader. Why would Max give me, who he doesn't even know, an assignment with someone like Eric? I was genuinely curious to know what Max's 'assignment' was about.

I replied Eric with silence so he continued on. "Max has assigned me to help you through your initiation." Eric said.

Wouldn't that be considered as cheating? This sounded like total bs. I didn't want Eric's help. Not after what he had done to Christina. "Oh okay. You can help me pass initiation by leaving me alone and not bothering me." I said bitterly, making my way out.

I didn't want anything to do with him at the moment. Eric quickly stopped me. He grabbed onto my forearm, stopping me from coming out. I looked into his face and he said, "I will fail this assignment and you will be kicked out if you don't agree with this." Eric said, with a hint of desperation in his voice. It was as if though he was silently pleading me to agree. I laughed. The great Eric begging? The idea was too absurd.

"So again with the threats?" I said. "Im being nice to you so do you want the nice way or the hard way. Trust me, you wouldn't like the hard way." Eric said.

"I didn't know that you could be nice." I said sarcastically. Eric rolled his eyes impatiently.

"But still, no." I said. I didn't want to have him help me through initiation because I hated him and I didn't want someone like HIM to help me through initiation/

I turned around to leave AGAIN but Eric stopped me by sticking out his foot and tripping me over. I fell on my gluteus maximus and I glared up at him.

He didn't look like he regretted tripping me over. I got up by myself because he didn't offer a hand, not that I wanted him to. I decided that leaving wouldn't be the best option at the moment because he would probably stop me.

"You've seen everyone fight. You know what they're capable of. I know that you want to pass initiation so let me help you." Eric said.

"Let you help me? You are probably going to dangle me off the Chasm just to 'prove my bravery'" I said to him.

I could tell that it was a wrong move because his eyes darkened. "So you're upset about me dangling Christina over the Chasm? Is this why you don't want my help? This is Dauntless, Tris. People who give up don't tend to last long here. I had to dangle her to teach her and everyone else that giving up isn't good. In a real fight, you give up, you die. Everything I do has reasons to it, Tris. So don't go around thinking that every cruel thing I do is for my own pleasure. I am not a cruel person." Eric said.

Eric's eyes held a little bit of sadness in it. I almost pitied him but then he might be faking it. "So prove it. Prove to me that you are not cruel. Prove to me that you are a human being with good intentions." I said.

My Abnegation in me was telling me to give him a chance. My Erudite in me was telling me that this was stupid and there might be risks giving him another chance.

"Only if you accept my help." Eric said.

 **A/N: Hey guys thanks for sticking up until chapter 4. The story is really rushed but I dont think that you guys would want to read a whole blot of text that was originally from the book so I shorted it up a little bit. I got the idea of Eric helping Tris from one of my friends.**

 **Check out her wattpad account and her Percy Jackson adaptation of Cinderella (** **jacksonfilms** **) :)**

 **So how did you guys like Eric softening up a little bit, or is he just lying? Please suggest ideas on how Tris and Eric's relationship should go on through the next few chapters. :)**

 **-Steph**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hey guys. I re-uploaded the chapter. Thanks to all the people who notified me this in the comments :)**

 **T R I S**

It was five in the morning and the Pit was empty. Eric told me to meet him here in the Pit right now but he wasn't here. He told me to wear comfortable shoes but my option was limited because Dauntless only provided me with only one pair of shoes.

I waited for fifteen minutes and I was seriously considering going back.

I knew it. I laughed bitterly. He stood me up. He was probably laughing at how gullible I was to believe that he was actually going to help me. I knew that he was sadistic that way.

I turned around to go back when I bumped into a figure. I tripped over my feet and was about to fall back when the person caught me around the waist.

I was about to open my mouth and apologise when the person said, "What are you doing out this early?"

It was Four. He had his monotonous facial expression. "I'm just waiting for someone." I said. He didn't need to know that Eric had stood me up.

"This early? Who is it?" Four asked.

I heard someone come up behind us. "I thought you knew better, Four. Relationships between students and instructors are not allowed. "A voice said from behind Four and I. It was Eric.

"What?!" Four and I said at the same time and we both detached ourselves from each other. It was Eric. He must've thought that we were in some kind of relationship because Four had his arm around my waist.

"Is Eric the person you were waiting for?" Four asked me in disbelief. "Am I that bad?" Eric said, facing Four.

"Why are you two meeting early in the morning. Is there something I need to know?" Four said. I could tell that Four wanted to know what was going on.

"The only thing you need to know is that you are unwanted here. Now scram." Eric said, raising his voice.

"I don't trust you with her." Four said, unwilling to leave. I'm assuming that the 'her' was me.

"So you care about her?"Eric said, rasing his eyebrows.

**P O V**

Eric smirked, knowing that he had hit the nail right on the head. Tris looked at Four suspiciously and Four gulped and flushed pink.

"I just don't want one of my initiates getting injured in the hands of someone like you." Four quickly covered up.

"You think that I am cruel enough to hurt someone?" Eric said in mock hurt.

Four rolled his eyes. "You are capable of everything." Four sneered. Four recalled back to when Eric killed Amar.

The memory was still fresh in his mind.

"Yes I am capable of everything and I will be capable of cutting you of your job of you don't leave us." Eric said with a growl. He was getting impatient. Four left, leaving Eric with Tris.

"Why are you so rude to him? I thought that you were trying to prove to me that you're not a cruel person because threatening people goes under the category of cruel." Tris asked, crossing her arms and turned to face Eric.

Eric rolled his eyes. "We're getting off topic. Time to get started." Eric said.

Tris knew that he was trying to change the topic so she didn't press any further.

"So today, we need to work on your cardio-respiratory endurance. We're going to go for a morning jog around the compound because you will need to run in one of the activities later on in initiation. We're going to run around the Pit, through the apartments section, past the cafeteria and back to here." Eric said.

 **T R I S**

Eric ran through some techniques when running to stop me from getting stitches. He decided to lead the way because I didn't know the course.

I remember back when I was in Abnegation, I use to follow the other Dauntless kids and run with them. I remember the feeling of freedom when I ran.

Eric's running pace was twice as fast as mine so I had to run two times faster to catch up with him. I was sweating Niagras and I was panting like a wet dog.

When we finished, I sat down to regain my breath. "Not bad." Eric commented. That would probably be the closest thing to a complement he would give me.

We both sat facing opposite each other. Eric's shirt was stuck to his body because of sweat and it outlined his toned torso and upper body. His arms were beaded with sweat and his hair was tousled by the wind.

I looked away before Eric caught me staring and got the wrong impression.

"Our next training session will be tonight after dinner." Eric said.

"What if my friends ask where I'm going?" I said to Eric.

"Lie to them." Eric said with a smirk. I rolled my eyes. Of course he would tell me to do that.

"Okay." I said.

"Go get cleaned up. You look like a mess." Eric said. With that, he stood up and left.

 **A/N: Hey guys. Thanks to the people who commented feedback :) I really appreciate all of your enthusiasm. I will try and update soon.**

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	6. Chapter 6

**T R I S**  
I finished showering and getting changed. It was nearly breakfast and Eric decided to go through some of my mistakes in fighting and he just gave me some tips to improve. I guess that he wanted to 'help' me win my fight today. I was definitely fighting today because yesterday I didn't get to fight.

I could tell that he changed out of his sweaty shirt into a shirt with no sleeves that showed his arms. I noticed that there was a tattoo that wrapped around his upper arm. It was a thin ring that had patterns in it. It expanded every time he demonstrated a punch.

"Come into the ring and fight me." Eric said suddenly.

He wanted me to fight him?  
"What? You want me to fight you? You have a two year advantage over me!" I protested. I was surely going to lose if I fight him and I would be limping out of the training room with some broken bones.

"You scared huh?" Eric said with a challenging glint in his eyes. I had no choice but to fight him otherwise he'll think that I'm 'scared' of him.

"You're going to lose today when we pair you up to fight with someone. Just fight me so I know what to improve you on." Eric said with a roll of his eyes. So it was definite. I was going to fight someone today. j felt bile rise to my throat.

I nodded and hoped that he wouldn't injure me that much.

I get that he wanted me to fight him, so he could correct my mistakes but Eric was physically intimidating. He towered over me by alot and he was thick with muscles.

He probably had more muscles than my body mass. Jokes. But he was really muscly and the piercing and the tattoos added to his intimidating demeanor.

I positioned myself infront of him. I raised my hand up infront of my face to protect me. "Firstly, your abdomen is unguarded." Eric said, pointing at my abdomen. Great. We didn't even start fighting yet and I had a mistake.

I lowered my left arm so my right arm was guarding my face and my left arm was guarding my stomach and abdomen. Once Eric knew that I was ready,he started off with a full force swing to my face. I wasn't ready. In panic, I dodged his punch. I tripped over my feet and I fell on my butt.

He had his eyebrows raised, not expecting me to dodge his punch. He opened his mouth and I expected him to complement me for dodging his punch but he said, "Too slow."

I sighed. He offered me a hand and I reached out to take it. His big hands took mines and I could feel my heart excellerating. His hands were rough but warm. I could feel myself getting up with the help of him. I opened my mouth to mutter a quick thanks to him but...

Suddenly, I was back on the ground with Eric straddling my waist with my hands pinned to the side of my body.

He just pushed me back onto the ground and sat on me. I wheezed out a cough and I stared at him in disbelief. What was he doing? Wasn't he suppose to help me up. For a moment, I thought that he was nice. Well, I was wrong. His full body weight was pressing against my pelvis and his nails were digging into my wrist.

"In a fight, always remember to never trust the opponent. You might get caught off guard." Eric said, looking down at me, smirking in triumphant. I coughed again and he got off me. A rish of air filled my lungs and I could feel my face returning back to its originak colour. My hair was frazzled from being splayed all over the grouna dnsome strands were plstered to my face because of sweat.

"Well, we are in a fight and you are the opponent. Why should I trust your advice?" I replied with a smirk. Eric rolled his eyes and said, "You know what I mean. Get up. Let's try again."

He offered a hand but I didn't take it this time. Sneaky bastard. He was trying to trick me.

I got up by myself. I smirked, knowing that I dodged his attempt to trick me again. He did tell me to never trust the opponent. I was positioning myself when a foot kicked my feet out from under me. Again, I fell to the floor. My head banged against the floor and I groaned.

"What's with you always making me fall down?!" I asked Eric, in frustration. He laughed, enjoying my frustration.

"I kicked your feet to remind you to always stay alert." He said.

Eric had a weird way to teaching people things. First dangling Christina over the chasm and now this. I rolled my eyes.

"Lets continue." Eric said. We got back into the ring and he let me start.

I balled my right fist and I aimed for a punch in his stomach but he quickly caught it. "Didn't I tell you to use your elbows?" He said to me.

We tried again and there was half an hour left. He improved my blocking and he taught me to trick people when fighting. I guess that was one of his Erudite traits, deceiving people in fights.

He told me to pretend to punch them and then kick them when they expect the punch. He told me that people wouldn't expect someone like me to do something like that. Yeah, because I'm a _Stiff._

It was breakfast and I retied my ponytail to make it neater. I knew that Christina was going to bombard me with questions about why she couldn't find me this morning.

"Um thanks." I muttered quietly to Eric. He had wiped his sweaty neck with a towel that was laying on the floor and now he was writing the pairings for the fight on the board for today. The board was facing away from me and I had a feeling that I was going to be paired with someone unexpected. "And one thing, if you don't win today, you're running ten laps around the conpound. Its not worth wasting my time if you don't win."

I walked out of the training room and I thought about our training session. Sure I learnt alot of things from our first lesson. I improved my blocking and fighting technique. Better was that Eric didn't call me a Stiff at all.

He wasn't hesitant to share his own fighting techniques with me.

Was it wrong to think that I was looking forward to our next lesson? Damn it, I was letting my guard down.

 **A/N: PLEASE give me honest feedback. Did I rush the romance? Please notify me of my mistakes in the story :)**

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 **-Steph**


	7. Chapter 7

**T R I S**

I was at breakfast and Christina had just bombarded me with questions as to why I wasn't in my bed when she woke up.

"I was hungry. I just went down to the cafeteria." I lied. It wasn't the best excuse but Christina decided not to press. She narrowed her eyes at me. She was from Candor so she probably saw straight through my lie.

We both sat down at our table and Christina was discussing about shopping plans.

**  
Four was about to flip the board and I was scared. I knew that regardless of who I got paired up with, I would lose.

My breath got knocked out of me when I saw who I was paired up with. It was Drew. Drew turned his head and looked at me. He was smirking.

I was surely going to lose. Drew was like a boulder and I was a pebble. I would lose. It was inevitable. He was stronger and taller than me.

My fight was third so we waited for two fights. I was nervous and I was jiggling my leg in worry. What if I lost? A part of me wanted to win because I didn't want to let Eric down. But what made Eric so special that I felt the need to win for him?

Before I knew it, he called us into the ring. I gulped and I stepped into the ring. As soon as I passed through the ring line, I felt a sudden feeling of fear crawl over me. Drew had a smirk plastered onto his face.

He had his hands already in position and I was trembling. "Oh look, she's shaking. How pathetic!" Drew laughed, tilting his head back. Peter and Molly joined in and laughed.

It exposed his bruises along his jawline. Then it struck me. Drew was still injured from his fight with Peter yesterday and I could use this to my advantage. I could hit him in his injured spot. For once, I was glad of my Erudite smartness.

I balled my fists up and I drove an uppercut at his bruises. Drew staggered at the impact and I smirked in triumph.

"Who's pathetic now?" I said. He clutched at his jaw and a murderous glare settled on me and I felt like shrinking. Drew made a growl like sound and charged towards me, tackling me by the waist. I fell over and wheezed because the breath got knocked out of me. I could hear a few gasps from the other initiates.

Drew sat ontop of me and punched my jaw. "B***h." He muttered and continued to drive his fists against my stomach and head. I put my hand over my head, trying to protect it but it inly exposed my ribs. He started to punch at my ribs and my eyes bulged in pain.

With all my might, I pushed Drew off me and he fell over to the side. I got up and kicked him in his injured leg. I just noticed because he was limping.

Drew groaned and I smirked. He kicked his uninjured leg under my feet and I tripped over. I quickly got up but Drew bet me to it.

I could see a fist aiming towards my head. Drew's fist connnected with my temple and I yelped. Spots were starting to obscure my vision and my head was dizzy.

I staggered and tripped over my feet, landing onto the floor. The last thing I could see was Drew towering over me, with his foot retracted back to kick me.

I woke up with blinding with light in my eyes. I was in the infirmary. Something cold was pressed up against my face. I winced. The sharp smell of medicine entered my nose and I cringed.

My vision was blurry so I couldn't make out the person who was bending ontop of me.

My vision cleared. It was Eric. His eyebrows were furrowed and his lips were pressed into a thin line. He was concentrating with the task at hand.

"What happened?" I croaked. My voice came out hoarse and my throat hurt. I reached up my hand and clutched my throat.

Eric leaned over and grabbed a glass of water for me to drink. "Drink." He ordered.

"You didn't poison the water right?" I said with a little smile on my lips.

"Don't you think that if I wanted you dead then I would've stabbed you while you were knocked out right?" He said.

I took the glass and took a sip.  
I gagged. It tasted revolting.

"Why does the water taste funny? You didn't poison it right?!" I shrieked.

"Chill. Its just dissolved medicine." Eric said, chuckling. I blushed, embarrassed.

"How long was I out for?" I asked. "A couple hours." He replied quietly.

Eric had an icepack pressed to my face and I was pretty sure that there were bruises on my face.

"Lets talk about how you did today." Eric started. I sighed. I let him down. I lost. I looked down, expecting the worst. What he said was not what I expected.

"Not bad. Especially on your first fight. You need to be more alert." Eric commented. I looked up.

"I was alert." I defended.

"But not alert enough. If you were alert, then you would've came to your senses and dodged Drew. Also, we need to work on you blocking because your blocking wasn't effective enough." Eric said. I had a flashback of Drew punching me and I was lamely trying to block it.

"Okay." I muttered.

"Are you feeling okay?" Eric asked me. He took the icepack off my face and set it on a table.

He looked genuinely concerned. His eyes were soft with worry.

"Why are you here?" I asked him.

"Came to check on you. It's part of a leaders job that initiates don't take the easy way out by dying before initiation ends." He said in a joking manner.

"Well, checking someone doesn't require having an icepack pressed to their face while they're sleeping." I pointed out. He rolled his eyes.

"By the way, I'm going to take you somewhere tonight." He said.

My ears perked up. Was he taking me on a date? My cheeks flushed pink. Eric looked at me and laughed. He was laughing so hard that his head was tilted back and his face was all red.

"Sorry to get your hopes down but I'm taking you to a fighting club in the pit. You can learn a few dirty tricks or two from watching them." Eric said. He was still laughing and I felt like dissolving into the bed. Was the idea of him taking me out on a date that absurd?

For some reason, I felt oddly dissapointed... and hurt.

I let out a breath looked at Eric.

He was trying not to laugh but there were still traces of laughter on his face.

He passed me a bottle of medicine. "Its medicine to help get rid of the pain and bruises. Its new from Erudite. Take them every four hours." Eric said.

It was a clear pink bottle with a few capsules in it.

Eric signed me off out of the infirmary and we headed over to the dining hall. I was out for a couple of hours and it was dinner now.

Christina came rushing to me before I knew that it was her. "Thank god you're alright." Christina said, hugging me.

I smiled, happy that at least someone cared. "You look terrible." She said to me.

"Thanks. You look terrible too." I replied. Christina had spots of bruises all around her face because of her fight today.

"Come on. Lets eat."

 **A/N: Hey guys. So, some people have requested speeding up the Triseric romance a little bit and I'm sorry I'm trying. I dont want to rush it too much because it would make the story weird.**

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	8. Chapter 8

**T R I S**

I trudged back to the dorms, exhausted and tired. Eric just took me to a fighting club and we were watching two people fight. The fighting rules were the same as the ones we have in initiation. I learnt a few fighting techniques or two. It was obvious that they were far more advanced than me and I would go down in less than a second if I had to verse one of them. They incorporatedd many techniques from wrestling into their fight. That was the good thing. The bad thing was that I nearly got ran over while watching them. Throughout the fight, Eric kept leaning down to whisper and point things out into my ear.

I decided to take a shower to wash the blood and sweat off me. I decided to make the water steamy and hot to sooth my sore muscles. I took a peek at the mirror and cringed. The bruises were far worse than I had imagined.

There were bruises on my jaw and on the side of my face. There were also bruises on my stomach. I took a capsule and swallowed it with water. I was still dressing when a figure appeared infront of me. Damn, it was Molly. What does she want now? I put on all of my clothes on quickly.

Before I could defend myself, Molly shoved me against the wall and held me there. He hand was against my throat. She was really strong to lift me up by the neck and hold me there.

"Don't ever hurt Drew again or you're going to deal with me and trust me, you wouldn't want to. You saw what I done with your best friend." Molly said. She was pressed up against me and her fishlike breathe was smothering my face.

"I had no choice Molly, its a fight. People are bound to get hurt. You hurt Christina and I didn't go and push you aginst walls." I said. I looked her in the eyes and her eyes hardened.

"Still, you hurt Drew." She said.

"Looks like someone has a certain little crush on Drew." I muttered. Molly heard that and she dug her nails onto my arm, making it bleed.

"If you ever suggest that I crush on him, I am going to obliterate you." Molly exclaimed. Her bulbous nose was nearly touching mines. I could see her uneven and black teeth.

I nodded, not wanting to cause any more trouble.

"You know," Molly started, "You're such a slut." I bulged my eyes. Why on Earth would she think that?

"I saw you sneak out of your bed yesterday and you came back sweating. Why did you come back late today? Oh thats right, you were being a slut." Molly continued. There was so much hatred in her eyes that I felt like melting against the wall.

"I don't know what delusion you're under but I'm not sleeping with anyone. You don't have solid proff and you can't just assume something like that." I said, defending myself.

"Save the excuses. Who knew, the little Abnegation girl would be sneaking out to sleep with guys?" Molly said, tracing a fingernail along my cheek.

"If you are assuming that I'm sleeping with people, then I am goingnto assume thay you like Drew." I said with a grin on my face.

Molly squinted her eyes at me and she dug her fingernail into my cheek.

I tried to pull my head out as far back as I can. I internally laughed. The idea of Molly thinking that I was a slut was very absurd and crazy.

"You're not even that pretty or curvy. You have a body of a twelve year old." Molly continued. Her long nails were digging to the side of my face.

"And you have a personality of a b***h." I replied. Molly slapped me across the face.

"Watch yourself." She said. She gave me a look of pure hatred and then she walked out of the bathroom.

After a few minutes, I walked out of the bathroom.

"Oh you're back to the land of the living." Peter said as I walked through the bathroom door. "And in battered condition." Drew added in, laughing. Molly was glaring at me.

Deep breaths. I took a deep breath in and a deep breath out.

"So tell me, did you have a nice kick to the head. I can give you another one if you ask nicely." Drew said, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed across his chest. He was blocking my way.

Drew looked down at me and and scoffed. "Pathetic." He muttered. I noticed that his jaw was bruised and blacker than before.

I gritted my teeth. I needed to calm down. Eric said that if I caused any major conflicts with other initiates, I could be punished if someone reports me.

"I'm going to ask you nicely to move out of the way unless you want more bruises." I threatened. I knew how ridiculous I sounded but I had nothing to say.

Drew laughed and stepped out of the way. I walked pass him and he rolled his eyes at me. I roughly shoulder bumped him.

Suddenly, Peter stuck out his foot and tripped me over. I fell on my back and I could feel the laughter coming from them.

"You guys stop! There's a word for someone who bullies someone smaller and weaker than them. Its coward. So back off!" Christina defended. She came out of nowhere and stood infront of me.

Peter scoffed and walked away with Molly and Drew flanking his sides.

Christina turned around and helped me up. "Tris! Are you alright?" She asked me. She looked at my cheek and it was bleeding. Christina got a wet twoel from the bathroom and quickly dabbed it.

"Yeah. Thanks Chris, for standing up to me." I said. "No worries." She replied.

I didn't go to sleep until I made sure that everyone was asleep. I didn't want to risk Drew or Peter or Molly doing something to me while I slept.

I greeted sleep because I was too tired.

Eric told me to meet him at the training room. At first, I didn't want to go because I was afraid that Molly would see me and would keep thinking and confronting me about sleeping with people but it was a better alternative than facing the wrath of Eric if I don't turn up. I needed to discuss an excuse with Eric for when people confront me like Molly did.

I walked into the training and I stopped in my tracks. Eric was shirtless and he was punching a punching bag.

His torso was _very_ defined,very very define.

"Oh god. Put your shirt on!" was the first thing I said. Eric turned and noticed that I was there. "You prude." He muttered and rolled his eyes. He grabbed his shirt off the floor and put it on.

I made sure that he had his shirt on and then I walked closer towards him. I was raised in Abnegation and i've never seen anyone show alot of skin except for the time I had to take off a factionless man's shirt to patch up his stab wound.

"I need to talk to you about something." I said. He perked up and looked at me.

"Yeah. What is it about." Eric said.

"Yesterday, Molly got suspicious about me leaving yesterday morning and coming late last night and she called me some things so I need an excuse." I said. Eric furrowed his eyebrows.

"What did she call you?" He asked me.  
"Don't worry." I brushed him off.

"No it does matter if it has affected you enough for you to come to me." Eric said.

I sighed. "She called me a slut and she thought that I was going around sleeping with guys." I muttered. Eric bulged his eyes.

"You shouldn't be affected by this. This is far from the truth. You and I both know that you're not sleeping around with guys and you're not a slut. Molly's an a** and you're the total opposite of that." Eric said.

I smiled. He was actually being nice. "Thankyou, Eric." My cheeks filled with colour.

"But sometimes, you can be very maddening." Eric said jokingly. I hit him on the shoulder. I take that back. He's not nice.

"Okay. Lets get back to work. We're going to improve on your blocking and dodging." Eric said.

We spent two hours on dodging and blocking. He threw these tennis balls in my direction and I had to dodge them and block them. It was very exgausting and he was doing this for two hours straight.

I was too tired and I stopped. He kept pegging balls at me. "Come on. Keep going on. Its punishment for losing." Eric said.

I decided not to go back to the dorms to change because I didn't to face Molly. I wasn't afraid of her but I didn't want to deal with her.

I waited in the training room with Eric until people came. I decided to skip breakfast because I didn't feel like eating. Eric and I stood far away from each other to make sure that people wouldn't get any ideas. We cleaned up all of the tennis balls and it was hard because Dauntless had a couple of huge boxes of tennis balls.

Eric was pairing people up and halfway, Four came in. He saw me in the room and he came to me.

"Are you feeling alright?" Four asked me. "Uh yeah. Thanks." I replied awkwardly.

"That's good." Four said. I nodded. Four left and went to Eric. Four's eyes scanned the board and his eyes bulged.

"Absolutely not!" Four said, pointing to something on the board. They were hushly arguing and I was pretty sure that it was something about me becuase they would both occasionally look up at me.

Eric finished the fight with, "I have more authority over you. I get to chose!"

Slowly, everyone started to fill into the room. I could feel Molly's glare on me when she walked in. Bile started to rise up my throat when I remembered what she called me and what she did to me.

Deep breath in. Deep breath out. It's not true to why should I worry about it?

"Today, will be the second last day of the fights and we have paired you up according to your previous fights. We know how you fight so we paired you with someone around the same fighting level as you." Four said. Eric flipped the board and my eyes widened.

I was paired with Molly.

How could Eric do something like this? He knew perfectly well what Molly did to me and now he's pairing me up with her. I glared at Eric and his eyes met mine.

I'm prettry sure that he did this on purpose. Peter was paired up with Edward, Christina was paired up with Will, Myra was paired up with Al and Drew was left out for today. My fight with Molly was first so I had no time to calm myself down. "You're up with the tank. Good luck." Christina whispered to me. I nodded a thanks to her.

"Molly and first jumper, into the ring." Eric called. Molly laughed and said, "I don't know why you paired me and the Stiff together. I'm obviously way better than her." Molly said and then she looked at me with disgust.

"Get off your high horse. I paired you up according to technique not brute strength or ability." Eric said Molly flushed and replied, "Whatever."

I stepped into the ring and Molly did so two. She had a fierce expression on her face and her arms were guarding her face.

Her abdomen was exposed.

Eric called the fight to start. Molly started off by stepping and punching me in the face. I blocked it with my forearm and I punched her in the stomach while she was caught off guard.

 _You're such a slut._

Molly's voice echoed in my head. I gritted my teeth. The memory of Molly slamming me against the wall flashed behind my eyes and I balled my fists.

Molly licked her lips and lifted a foot and kicked me on the stomach. I fell to the ground and Molly was already advancing towards me. I got up quickly and I grabbed onto her arm and swung her in the opposite direction. I was surprised that it worked. She stumbled but regained her footing. I learnt this trick yesterday.

She ran at me and a battle cry escaped her mouth. I refrained myself from laughing at how stupid she sounded.

Molly called me a slut. She accused me of sleeping around. She slapped my face. She slammed me aginst the wall. She was body shaming me. She was underestimating me.

A feeling went over me and I felt angry and murderous. I had it all directed at Molly. Molly was reach to throw a punch at me but I punched her in the ribs and I pushed her onto the ground.

I kicked her when she was on the ground and I kept pulling my leg back to kick her, again and again. I saw red and my anger was in the way of my senses. Molly was curled on the ground and I just didn't care.

She deserved it and I gave it to her.

I felt someone wrap their arm around my waist and pull me back. "Stop it. It's over. You won. Go take a walk. You're clearly in emotional distress so when you are calm, come back." Eric said. Eric pulled his arm back and pointed to the door.

I took one look at Molly and I walked out of the door.

 **SORRY FOR ALL OF THE SPELLING MISTAKES**


	9. Chapter 9

**T** **R** **I S**

After dinner, Christina decided to go get tattoos and dye our hairs with Will and Al. They agreed to come and they were all happily discussing what tattoos to get. I guess that this is really important because it marks that we're in Dauntless and the tattoos were going to stay forever. I was in a fairly haply mood because Christina told me that Peter lost his fight with Edward.

"What happens if our tattoos become wrinkly when we are old?" Al asked.

"Would you rather have a tattoo or regret not having a tattoo when you're old?" Christina asked Al.

"The first option." Al muttered.

"Exactly. No come on!" Christina said. She grabbed my hand and dragged me In the direction of the tattoo parlour.

The tattoo parlour wasn't bright. It was dim with pictures of tattoo designs stuck onto the wall. There were many tattooed employees walking around. There were many rooms thay were cut off by curtains to do the tattoos. There was music being pumped out by speakers that were stuck to the walls. If I didn't know that it was a tattoo parlour, then I would've assumed that it was a night club. I looked around, deciding on what tattoo to get.

I wanted to get a tattoo that resembled something special to me.

I decided to get three ravens representing each family member I left behind, my mum, dad and Caleb.

I took my design off the wall and I went to find someone that can do my tattoo for me. A woman's back was facing towards me and she worked here. I tapped on her back to ask her if she could do my tattoo.

She turned around with a smile on her face but her smile dropped when she saw who I was. "What are you doing here?" She hissed.

It was Tori, the woman who ran my aptitude test. "I'm here to get a tattoo." I said, stating the obvious.

"I mean what are you doing here, in Dauntless?" She said in a low whisper.

"I chose Dauntless. You remember me right? You told me that I was Div-" I said but Tori clamped her hand over my mouth. I finished my sentence but it was muffled by her hand.

"Don't say that word. It's too dangerous. Come around the back." Tori said. She grabbed my hand and then she pulled me into one of the rooms that was furthest from the front of the parlour.

Tori did my tattoo and answered all of my questions. She told me about her brother and how Eric was the one who was pulling the strings to her brother's death. She told me how Eric was dangerous and how all the leaders were dangerous. Tori explained what Divergent was.

If Tori told me this when I first met Eric, then I would've believed it but now, no. It was so bard to believe that Eric was apart of a murder. Tori said that he was smart because he was a former Erudite. She said that he will find a way to manipulate Divergents and then will finally kill them.

If Eric was smart, then would he have already figured out that I was Divergent? Did Max figure out that I was Divergent and he assigned me to Eric so he could kill me? These thoughts invaded my head.

I thanked her and paid her in the end. She gave me a look and then she walked off to serve another customer. There was a bandage over my tattoo. I decided to have it on my collarbone, flying towards my heart. I had a bandage over it.

Christina, Will and Al got tattoos and then we headed back to the dorms.

We walked to the dorms and I headed to my trunk to get some clothes to shower. I turned around and Peter was standing infront of me with Drew next to him. I figured that Molly was in the infirmary.

"Oh what's that?" Peter said, looking down at the bandage on my collarbone.

He reached out a hand and quickly ripped off the bandage. My skin stung. "It's a tattoo." He said.

"So you think you're so tough now because you won a fight?" Peter said, looking down at me.

"So, do you still think that you're still tough after you lost that fight with Edward?" I shot back. Peter squinted his eyes at me and scoffed.

"That fight was nothing. I was simply taking it easy. I'm clearly the best. I don't need to exert myself to do something that I'm already good at." Peter said. I rolled my eyes. Cocky bastard.

I got my clothes from my trunk and turned around. "So please excuse me. I'm going to shower unless you want to watch." I said and I walked past the both of them.

I didn't actually mean it. I was just trying to get them away from me. Clearly it worked. Peter scrunched up his face and said, "I don't need to waste my time on someome like you."

I laughed and made my way to the bathroom. Thankfully, I didn't have to worry about Molly again.

Eric asked me to meet him again in the training room. I was weary of him. I remebered Tori's warning about him about how he was a murderer who hunted people like me, Divergents. I wanted to confront him but wouldn't it be dangerous?

But could Tori be lying? Could she be making this up because she had no one to blame om for her brother's death? It was all confusing.

I came into the training room and I saw Eric. This time, he had his shirt on and he was training by himself with the punching bag. I carefully walked in.

He turned around and saw me there. He stopped and wiped off his sweat. "Hey." He said. I replied, "Hi."

He looked at my collarbone. "What is it?" He asked. "Three ravens, representing thr three family members I left behind." I replied.

"Lets start. We're going to fight each other." Eric said.

I dont know why but Tori's words flooded my mind, telling me that I should be careful an how he was dangerous. But she could also be lying  
About it because she had no one to blame her brother's death on.

I slowly walked into the ring. "Lets start." Eric said.

It all rushed out of my mouth. "Did you kill someone?"

The way I put it made it sound so horrible. "They told you did they?" Eric said.

I immediately regretted what I said. There was a look of hurt that settled into his grey eyes. I didn't reply.

"I didn't do it though." Eric said. Was he actually telling the truth?

"They told you that I was dangerous right? And how I was responsible for the string of suicides. I didn't do it." Eric said.

"Explain." I said. It was only fair if I heard both sides of the story.

"But you have to trust me on this." He said. I just shrugged my shoulders. I really hoped that it wasn't true. I saw so much good in him. I just didn't want to wreck it.

"I was sent here for a task. I was sent by Jeanine. She thought that I was worthy enough to do so. I was the top student in the entire grade. The task was so wrong. It included killing people and I was against it but Jeanine forced me to do it. She's one hell of a manipulative b***h." Eric started off.

Was the task about finding Divergents? I decided to not to interrupt.

"I was quite successful with my task. I was trying to hunt down certain people who Jeanine claimed to be 'bad'. She said that they would ruin the faction system. Jeanine told me to hand these people over to her. I caught one, Tori's brother. I was walking through the chasm with Tori's brother towards my office and he said to me that he refused to be a test subject for Jeanine. Then he jumped. Because I was the last one with him, everyone just assumed that I pushed him when it was actually a suicide." Eric finished.

Now, he was sitting on the floor with his arms around his legs. "Do you believe me now?" He said to me.

His grey eyes pierced mines. A gut feeling told me to trust him. I was too busy trying to find the good in him that I didn't want to believe that he was a killer. I felt somewhat sad because he was put under all of us pressure and hatred from other people just people they just assumed something he didn't do. I felt obliged to believe him. The fierceness and reassurance in his eyes pleaded into my eyes and was trying to find understanding in me. I nodded. Eric got up and he did the unexpected. He hugged me.

His warm arms enveloped my body and I returned the hug. His head was resting on my shoulder and my head was pressed against his chest.


	10. Chapter 10

**T R I S**

We both pulled apart and I felt cold. I internally smiled. I felt oddly happy. This moment felt special and precious. I closed my eyes and I let out a sigh. I looked at Eric's face and there was a trace of a smile on his face. Somehow, I felt happy and complete around him. I felt like we just set a milestone for the both of us.

If Eric was really not lying, then wouldn't the security cameras have a recording of the death scene at the Chasm?

"Hey Eric? Did you check the security cameras yet?" I asked him. Realisation dawned on his face. "I'll go check them later." He said. I mentally chuckled. He was from Erudite and he hasn't thought of checking the security footage yet.

"But now lets work on your fighting."

I came back to the dorms. I wiped my sweat off before I entered. I took a quick shower and I came face to face with Christina. "You've got to wear this today!" Christina said.

She was clutching an outfit in her hand. It was a shirt that had a neckline that plunged down the middle further than Niagra Falls. She also held shorts in her hand.

"No thanks. I'll pass. I think it will look good on you." I said.

"Okay." Christina said and then she left off to change. I picked out a single black t-shirt with long black pants.

Christina and I linked arms and then we walked to breakfast.

"You know last night, I heard moaning near Peter's bed and I think he was wanking." Christina said. I scrunched up my face.

"You were watching him?!" I said in disbelief. Christina laughed.

"Yeah. Trust me, his one is smaller than an iPhone 4." Christina replied.

"You're gross." I replied. I couldn't help but laugh.

I was paired with Peter. Great. I was paired with Drew, then Molly and then Peter. Well that's great. Peter cracked his knuckles and cracked his head in an intimidating manner. I gulped. Whoever paired me up with Peter was definitely crazy.

Peter fought like a vicious animal and I would definitely lose. To stick on the optimistic side, I bet Molly so I had a chance of beating Peter as well. Flashbacks of Peter beating up Drew entered my head and for once, I felt scared.

Our fight was first so Eric called us into the ring. Four had a worried expression on his face.

Again, I glared at Eric because he paired me up with Peter. Eric only smirked in response. That bastard.

Peter and I stepped into the ring. I bit my lips and I raised my arms to guard my face and stomach area. I took a deep break and stopped myself from shaking. Peter had this look in his eyes like a predator about to attack a prey.

His lips were peeled back from his mouth like a feral dog. "You gonna cry? I'll go easy on you if you cry." Peter teased.

I rolled my eyes. I didn't have a good comeback so I kept my mouth shut.

I kicked Peter, well I would've kicked him if he didn't catch my foot. He pushed my leg back and it threw me off balance. Luckily, I didn't fall over because that would've ended badly for me.

I ran at him and dug my elbows into his ribs. He coughed and grabbed my ponytail. Peter started punching my face. I couldn't move because he had me locked in place. I kicked his legs and punched his ribs. He let go of me with a frustrated noise coming out of his mouth.

He ran towards me and I tried dodging it but he caught me by the waist. He kicked me in the ribs and I coughed out blood. He kicked me in the side of my cheek and more blood came out. He bent down and punched me in the nose. I heard a definite crack. My nose was bleeding and there was a blinding pain over there.

I turned my head to the side and I saw  
Eric in my peripherals. I was barely conscious. My head was pounding with pain and the blood seemed to be never ending. My ribs felt sore. I had a headache that could challenge Harry Potter and I could barely breathe properly.

Cleared my head.

 _I need to win, for myelf...and for Eric_

I rolled out of Peter's way and I swiped my legs under his feet, tripping him over. He fell onto the ground with a big thud. I got up faster than him and I jumped on his stomach. I mean, I literally jumped on his stomach.

I got off when he started coughing blood. His blood went on my leg and I cringed in disgust. I kicked him in the stomach but he grabbed me leg and for the second time today, he pulled me down onto the ground. My head hit the ground and I winced with pain.

Peter kicked my head again and I felt myself falling into unconsciousness.

He retracted his foot to kick me but I blocked it with my arms. Peter was enjoying this way too much.

I got uo quickly but Peter picked me up and threw me a few meters to the ground. I landed on my arm but luckily, I didn't feel any bones cracking.

I was on the ground and I didn't have the energy to get back up. Peter ran towards me and I did the first thing I could do. I kicked him in between the legs.

I could tell that this had a major effect because Peter screeched and fell to the ground.

I crawled over and with my might, I punched him in the temple.

Peter was running towards me and I could barely register what he was going to do. The pain was in the way of my thoughts. He kicked me in the ribs. He bent down to punch me. I kicked him on the side of his head and he fell to the ground. I quickly got up. Peter was starting to get up.

I panicked and I did the first thing I could do, kick him in the nuts.

Peter's body went slack.


	11. Chapter 11

**T R I S**

To say that I was happy was an understatement. I was ecstatic but I decided not to show it. Peter was taken to the infirmary and everyone was staring at me in disbelief. I watched as Four and Edward carried out his body.

They were shocked that I bet Peter. I was very tired and fatigue and my injuries were begging for attention. My leg gave out and I collapsed onto the floor. My head felt like someone had just made a stampede of elephants run around my head. I fell down but Eric caught me. My injuries were begging for attention. Eric quickly took my to the infirmary with an arm around my waist. the close proximity between the both of us was almost comforting.

After I went to the infirmary, I got put into a separate room from Peter.

I had bruised ribs and a bruised head and a bruised hand. They lifted up my shirt to check my stomach. It was awkward because Eric was watching. Eric was concerned because he was asking them if I was alright or if I was okay.

They asked me if I wanted to stay in the infirmary to heal my bruises but I didn't want to stay in the same place as Peter.

They gave me medicine for the bruises and then we left back into the training room.

Christina clapped me on the back in the cafeteria during lunch. "Someone finally put Peter in his place!" Christina said. She seemed genuinely happy for me.

I laughed. "And you kicked him in the balls!" Christina went on. Throughout dinner, Christina kept talking about the fights today. We finally finished the fighting aspect of initiation. Now we had to go through with weapons.

We came back into the training room after lunch and we saw that Four and Eric setting up the room. They were both avoiding each other and they were doing their own stuff. Eric was laying out knives on the table while Four was propping up targets.

If they bumped into each other, then they would both growl at each other.

When all of the initates entered the room, Four turned around to introduce us to what we were going to do. I noticed that Molly and Peter were out from the infirmary and were sending me murderous glares. Their glares were scary enough to scare Hitler into stopping the genocides.

"We've passed the fighting part of initiation. Now, we're going to teach you how to handle weapons and we're going to get you into more shape. We're going to start by running a lap around the compound. I hope that you've all had light meals." Four said.

I looked at Al who I remembered had four serves of food. He looked at me easily.

I had a small advantage over the other initiates because I knew the track and I practiced running with Eric. Also, I was skinny so this helped me as well.

Everyone groaned about how they were tired from the fights. "Anyone complaining would run an extra two laps." Eric said. We walked around the compound to show the track to the others.

We all lined up in the Pit and We started running.

At first, I decided to run slowly so I could preserve my energy later on. Everyone was ahead of me but I didn't really care. Everyone was too busy trying to beat everyone that they were quickly wasting their energy. Peter kept looking back and snickering at my slowness.

Around halfway in the first lap, everyone was tired and they slowed down to my speed. I kept at a constant speed. After the first lap, I started running faster and I saw everyone behind me. I smirked, knowing that I was faster than all of them. I followed the breathing techniques that Eric showed me and before I knew it, I was back at the start, panting like a wet dog. Eric threw me a water bottle and I caught it easily.

"Is it poisoned?" I asked him. He rollled his eyes. "Just drink or I'll take the water back." Eric threatened.

I laughed and I unscrewed the cap and took a gulp.

Christina, Edward, Drew, Will, Myra, Peter, Molly and Al came in consecutive order. Eric threw a water bottle at Christina and Edward. Everyone was complaining about not getting water.

"First three get water. So run faster next time." Four said. Peter was muttering about how I was probably cheating and how I took shortcuts. Ha, sore loser.

We then walked back to the training room and we started on the knife throwing. "This is a knife..." Four started off.

He started naming parts of a knife and the uses of a knife in a situation. He told us where to hide a knife and so on.

Four demonstrated knife throwing by throwing one at a target. His knife dug into the board, dead centre. He threw other knives and Eric muttered, "Show-off."

Four either didn't hear that or he pretended that he didn't hear that. "I'd like to see you try." Four said, turning around to face Eric.

Eric scoffed. "I can do better than you. No doubt." Eric said.

Eric took the knife that he was twirling and he turned around and threw the knife backwards from an angle. His knife hit dead centre. Four rolled his eyes. I watched both of their arm movements and I put them into my head. Step and throw.

"Get to work!" Eric barked. Everyone scrambled to get their knives.

I picked up three knives that were light. I found them light and it was surprisingly easy to adjust to.

Everyone started to throw their knives. That ended abysmally because no one hit the the targets. I spent ten minutes on trying to adjust my arm movements to Four's and Eric's.

I furrowed my eyebrows and re adjusted my grip. "Are you going to throw or what?" I heard from a voice behind me.

It was Eric. "No. I'm just trying to practice arm movement." I replied casually. I trusted him not to make fun of me infront of the initiates.

Eric went away and I adjusted my footing. "Hey Stiff! Do you even know what a knife is?" I hears an annoying voice say. It was Peter. After I beat his sorry a**, he still torments me. I ignored him.

I pursed my lips and I stepped forward and threw the knife. The knife spun and hit the center of the target. The hilt of the knife hit the target so it didn't stick. I turned my head to face Peter.

He had a look of shock on his face. "Hey Peter, remember what a target is?" I said. Christina laughed.

"You're really good at this!" She said. "Thanks." I replied.

Eric and Four went around to help people with their knife throwing. Eric came to me and he smirked. "Great. But everytime you throw, try going faster and put more strength into it." He said. "Like this." He continued.

He grabbed my hand with the knife in it. I felt pink grow in my cheeks. His hand covered mine and it was warm.

His breath was on my neck. "So you hold it not to tight but not too loose so you can throw better."

He gently pried my hands open a little bit. "You step forward." He said quietly and he used his legs to nudge mines. I stepped forward.

"Then you throw." He said. My hand jerked forward with his and the knife landed, sticking in the dead centre.

"Thanks." I replied. I was flushed. Luckily, Eric went away and he couldn't see my flushed cheeks.

I hit in the centre for all of my throws except for when my hand accidentally slipped. Everyone had hit the target at least once but Al.

He did so bad that it almost seemed like he did it on purpose. His throws were sloppy.

Eric seemed to notice and I gulped. Something bad is going to happen.

"Candor, are you blind? Do I need to move the target closer to you?" Eric said to Al. It attracted the attention of all the other initiates, including me.

"It slipped." Al stuttered. If we weren't in Dauntless, then Al would've pissed his pants already.

"It slipped?! Then go fetch it." Eric said.

Al shook his head. "No." He replied. Eric widened his eyes, expecting Al to not talk back.

"Are you afraid?" Eric said. Eric's eyes darkened.

"Yes, of getting stabbed by an airborne knife." Al replied. Al had some confidence back into his voice.

"I'm pretty sure that you trust your friend's aiming better than yours." Eric said.

Al still shook his head. Everyone looked worried for Al.

"Go stand infront of the target." Eric ordered Al.

Al trembled, knowing what Eric was going to do. Slowly, Al walked to the front if the target.

"Four here is going to throw knives at you. If you flinch, then you're out." Eric said.

I widened my eyes. Al could get stabbed. Four rolled his eyes and looked at Eric in a bored expression. Four picked up three knives from the table.

"Eric is a sadistic pig." Christina muttered to me. I couldn't reply to Christina because I didn't exactly have the same views as her.

 _Everything I do has reasons to it, Tris._

Eric's voice appeared in my head. I get what he was trying to do but doing this might kill my friend. Al was standing there, visibly shaking and I suddenly felt sad. I remembered when he was shaking and crying in his sleep. I had an overwhelming feeling to protect him. It was my friend up there. The little Abnegation in me spoke up.

"Stop! Doing this won't make you stronger or better than Al. You're bullying us. There's only one word for people who prey on the weak. Its cowardice." I blurted out. Eric's head snapped to me and he pursed his lips.

"Trade places with Al. If you flinch,then Al takes your spot. Get it?" Eric said. There was a hint of hesitance in his voice.

Al walked out and I walked in. He gave me a greatful nod.

 **E R I C**

Tris stood there, not shaking but a determined look in her eyes. I admired her bravery but it was very dangerous if she showed selflessness as well. It would mean that she was Divergent if she was showing bravery at the same time as selflessness. But it could be that she wasn't Divergent. She could just be using the leftover selflessnesss she had from transfering.

Tris's eyes flickered to mine and a murderous glare settled into her eyes. She turned away from me to face Four. I wasn't afraid that she would get hurt. I knew that Four wouldn't hurt her.

Four threw the first knife and it landed next to her stomach. She didn't flinch.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She opened her bluish-greyish eyes. "Open your eyes, Stiff." Four said.

She opened her eyes. I knew that she was willing to go through whatever this was to stand up for her friend. This was the bravery that the Dauntless valued.

And I valued.

And that was the moment when I decided that I liked her.

 **A/N: Oooh. So guys. This chapter is very sloppy, I'm sorry. I'll keep making edits to each chapter :)**


	12. Chapter 12

**T R I S**

The next day, Eric asked me meet him again in the training room. I got dressed in some clothes and then I walked out of the training room.  
I was the first one here. I strolled over to the punching bags and I looked it up and down. I looked down at my hands and my knuckles were cut and bruised from all the training so far. I pulled my fist back and punched the punching bag. My cuts stung but I ignored it. I tried to remember the techniques that Eric and Four taught me and I killed time. I tried to put more power between my punches and kicks.

Some muscle have started to appear around my body and I felt stronger than I was when I jumped down the net.

"Sorry I'm late." A voice said behind me. I jumped in shock.

"Gosh you scared me." I said, putting a hand over my heart. I looked at my watch. He was half an hour late. Eric's hair was in a cute, ruffled mess. It was kind of like aftersex-hair. His shirt was matched with the wrong buttonhole. Did he? I looked him up and down.

"Had a great time last night?" I said. I couldn't help but put some bitterness in my voice. I knew that it wasn't right to assume something like that but I couldn't help it.

Eric laughed. "No, if that's whay you're thinking. I was in a rush." He replied.

A huge weight lifted off my chest.

"Let me guess, you had some errands to run?" I said, lifting my right eyebrow.

"No. I went to get this." Eric said. He reached for a box in his jacket and he gave it to me.

"What's this?" I asked him. It was a small box. It was about 5cm wide and as long as 3/4 of my forearm.

"It's a present." Eric said. I bit my lip.

"No, I can't." I replied, returning the box back to him. I couldn't just accept a present off him like that.

"I insist. I spent my own time trying to get this." Eric said, pushing the box back into my hand. His head was slightly tilted down and he was looking at me through his long eyelashes.

I sighed. I suppose that it was just a friendly gesture. There was a ribbon tied around it so I untied it and I opened it.

"Wow. Its beautiful." I whispered. There was no denying that.

It layed in the red stuff surrounding it. It was a small silver knife with a metal hilt with small ravens at the bottom.

"Eric, why did you get this?" I asked him.

"I just saw the ravens on it and I thought about your tattoo." He replied quietly. He reached out a small hand and touched my tattoo. He brushed over it and dropped his hand.

"Thanks. But I don't have anything to give back to you." I replied quietly. I blushed. "Don't sweat it. You don't need to give me anything back." He replied.

"You can tuck it in your shoe or your waistband just for emergencies. Try it out." He said. He had a small smile on his face. His grey eyes were bright and I wondered if he liked me.

Nah. Not possible. It was probably just a friendly gesture. But people don't give random people any gifts right?

I touched the blade and I ran my fingertips along the small hilt. The blade was thin and sharp. It was sharp enough to pierce through someone's skin with a light throw.

I walked up to one of the targets and threw the knife. The knife spun and whipped through the air. It hit the centre circle. The knife was light and it felt like it belonged in my hand.

"Its great right?" Eric said. He was running his hand through his hair in an attempt to fix it.

"Yeah." I replied.

"Okay put it away and lets start training." Eric exclaimed. I tucked it inside my boot.

"Am I allowed to use this when we're training with the other initiates?" I asked.

"You can if you want to but then try not to let other people get hold of it." He replied, flashing a quick smile at me.

We went for the entire session, going through throwing knife techniques. We did pushups and situps to help with my strength. To make it less awkward, Eric did it along with me. It came up to the point where I sat on his back when he did his pushups.

I started to feel like after all these training sessions, the connection between Eric and I wasn't just a initiate and instructor connection but more of a friendly companion connection. But was it wrong to say that I wanted more than that?

Today, Four and Eric made all of us practice a range of knife throwing techniques.

I held Eric's knife in my hand and my thumb glided over the engraved ravens on the hilt. I could see Eric watching me with his present in my hand. I was standing a little to the right of the target. I took a deep breath and adjusted my grip on the knife. I took a deep breath and retracted my arm and threw. The knife hit the centre.

Christina walked over to the side of me and nudged. "Hey can I use that knife. I need some luck since that knife's doing you good." She said. She eyed the knife. I felt uncomfortable with giving the knife o her. It felt wrong because Eric gave it to me as a gift for me, not for her. but she was just borrowing it temporarily right? I pressed my lips together and put a smile on my face.

"Umm okay." I replied, unwillingly giving it to her.

She looked at the knife and her eyebrows creased in the middle. "This looks different." She commented. She ran her thumb over the ravens on the hilt and she eyed something at the bottom.

"What's this?" Christina said, turning to face me.

"What's what?" I said, moving closer.

"There's something carved into it." Christina said.

What? I grabbed the knife off her a little bit too forcefully. Did Eric engrave something onto the knife? I turned the knife upsidedown and I read something that was engraved at the bottom.

 _Selflessly brave_

How come I missed that? And why were they carved into the knife? Why did Eric even choose t engrave it onto the knife? Eric seemed to notice and he looked me in the eye. I gave him a confused look. When he looked away, Christina took the knife off me and threw the knife. Luckily, she didn't press.

"Cool." She muttered.

After a few turns, she gave it back.

After lunch, we started on guns shooting. The gun was really heavy and I missed several times, enough times to make someone think that I was blind. After I shot, I would stagger back a metre or so. I made an agitated sound and I shot again, not even hitting the target. "Look, she sucks." Peter whispered and I whipped my head to him.

"Shut up or I'll make your head the target." I threatened Peter. He responded with laughing. "Then I know that I'm safe because you can't shoot." He replied, laughing harder.

"Both of you, shut up other wise I'll make both of your heads the target." Eric snapped behind us. Peter and I glared at each other before going back to whatever we were doing. I continued shooting. I continued shooting and missing. There was one time where my bullet bounced off a metal surface and hit a spot behind me, barely missing Four who was walking behind me.

"Finally, something you're not good at."

I was expecting Eric but it was Four. It was Eric who usually helped me so I felt oddly uncomfortable that it was Four instead of Eric. "Is that suppose to be a complement?" I replied. I held the gun with one hand.

"Sort of." Four replied. His voice suggested that this was just a friendly conversation.

"Here." He said and then he moved next to me. He re-adjusted the gun in my arms and he said, "Hold this tight."  
His hands wrapped around mines, making my grip tighten on the handle. "Thanks. Anything else?" I asked. I needed to improve in my gun shooting otherwise it would pull my stage on rank down.

"Put one foot forward so you have the other leg to lean back to after the recoil." He said, nudging my leg back.

"Also, aim." He replied, chuckling.

"Real funny." I replied.

I held my arms with the gun and I was about to shoot when Four pushed my arms a little bit to the left. I shot and I forgot to put one foot forward. I fell backwards but luckily Four caught me. The bullet hit the outermost circle. I smiled. It was a small accomplishment although it sucked.

I turned my head and I could see Eric, he had an angry expression on that was directed at Four. Was he jealous?


	13. Chapter 13

**T R I S**

After Four left my side we continued to shoot and we did the drills that we did with the knives but we performed them with a gun. Eric still had this pissed off look that followed Four around the room. I noticed that there was a tattoo peeking at the base of Four's neck. It kind of looked like tendrils that were wrapping around his neck.

We shot of far distance, long distance, from the side, up close and we learnt where to shoot if we wanted to kill someone. It was pretty full on. My shooting kind of improved. I hit the centre target after a hundred bullets or so. I was probably the worse at using the gun than everyone else. I wasted alot of bullets and Eric seemed to be a little bit annoyed by that. That was when Eric came around and told me that I could use the gun itself as a weapon. He told me that I could headbutt the person from behind with the back of the gun or I can whack them across the head with it.

I woke up to a banging sound, well everyone woke up. I sat up groggily and I propped myself up on an angle. My vision wasn't clear because I just woke up. It was cold. I looked down at my watch and it was midnight. Why would someone want to wake up an bunch of initiates at midnight? I my blanket was on the floor so I must've kicked it down during the night. I looked at the door and two people were standing there with friggen pots in their hand. They kept banging the pots together.

"Shut up." Someone complained. Other people groaned in agreement but they all stoped when they saw who was at the door.

"Be there at the train tracks in fifteen minutes otherwise you're cut." A voice said. His voice seemed to send out a clear cut in the atmosphere and it woke everyone up. It was a familiar voice, Eric's. Next to him was Four. Eric's eyes swept the room and his eyes landed on me. I suddenly felt self conscious. I looked down and I realised that my shirt had ridden up q bit during my sleep and it was exposing my belly button. I hastily pulled my shirt down. The feeling of self consciousness went away when Eric looked away. At least I had full clothes on. Christina slept in a croptop and shorts. I wondered how she could sleep in that through the cold with that on.

I diverted my attention back to Eric. I realised that he looked tired and he had a bit of stubble growing around his chin.

Four and Eric both left the room, not bothering to close the door and everyone got up to change and get ready. No one wanted to get cut because they were late to meet at the traintracks. I chose to wear tights and a shortsleeve shirt. It was cold but I had a feeling that some running would be involved in this so it would warm me up a little bit. Everyone made their way to the train tracks. There were a whole bunch of other people standing there. They were the Dauntless born initiates.

They were physically intimidating because they were all tall and bulky with piercings and dyed hair. Next to them two big plastic boxes with the words 'guns' and 'paintball' printed on them. I laughed. It was pretty self explanatory to what we were going to play.

There was a boy who approached me. He was taller than me by a few inches and he had caramel coloured skin. His hair was short and he had soft eyes that suggested that he was a nice person. His smile accompanied his eyes. "So you're first jumper eh?" He asked me, nudging my side.

I felt a tad but uncomfortable because I barely knew him and he was nudging me. "Umm yeah." I replied quietly.

"How did you know?" I replied.

"News travels around fast. I'm Uriah."

"I'm Tris."

"I know."

Uriah was going to open his mouth to say something but Eric cut him off.

"Listen up initiates! You are to grab a gun and a box of refills and when the train comes, jump into the joined carriage at the end of the train." Eric instructed.

Eric and Four were both arguing about train times.

After a few minutes, we heard the familar honking of the train. "Get ready!" Four yelled.

The train was really loud. When the train passed, I put the paintball refils into my waistband and I strapped the gun to my back. I ran parallel to the train and I took a deep breath. I sprinted and I calculated how many steps I would need to take to get in without pushing someone over. The cold air passed my face and went through my hair. The air smelt fresh.

Everyone had somehow managed to get onto the train and I was the last one left. I panicked. The platform was nearly ending and I had to get on now before there was no more space to run on. I grabbed onto the handle and jumped onto the little foothold, barely missing the end of the foothold. My head flashbacked to when Christina helped me onto the train after the choosing ceremony. Someone popped their head out of the train carriage. It was Four.

He extended his arms and helped me in. I muttered a small 'thanks'. I was still panting.

I saw Eric on the otherside of the train, giving Four the same look like when Four caught me when I tripped yesterday. Strange.

The train carriage was dim. There were thin lights along the edges of the roof of the train. The door of the train was open so the cold wind was attacking us. I rubbed my arms together. I should've at least tied a jumper to my waist.

"So, we are going to play a game of capture the flag. It might sound really childish to you but it is a Dauntless tradition. The game matters here. This game requires people with bravery, good shooting skills and determination. We split off into two teams with Four and I as the leaders. One team gets off first and hides the flag. The second team gets off 15 minutes later than the first team and they hide their flag. Your goal is to locate the opposition's flag." Eric started off. He looked over everyone as if to mentally choose who to include in his team. He't probably going to pick all the strong people, I thought sadly.

"You guys all know how to use a gun. Its all the same exept when you reload, you're using paintballs. No shooting at genitals." Eric continued, looking at everyone around the room.

"Losers pick first." Eric said. His arms were folded together and he had a cocky smile on his face.

Four ignored Eric calling him a loser and he picked someone. Four's eyes brushed over me briefly as if he was considering choosing me, or I was just imagining it.

"Edward." He chose. I choked down the embarrassment. Edward made his way through the crowd of initiates and he stood next to Four. Edward was an inch shorter than Four.

It was Eric's turn to choose. I was probably going to get picked last, I could barely shoot. I would probably end up shooting someone on my team. I looked out of the train window.

"I'll pick the Stiff."


	14. Chapter 14

**T R I S**

We were off to hide the flag. Four's team already got off before us. Everyone was arguing over what our team should do and all that. They were arguing so loud that it might give off our position to the other team. I was quite happy that I was on Eric's team but at the same time, I wasn't because Peter and Drew were on this team as well.

They wouldn't stop complaining about how I would drag the team down. Eric seemed to be as equally annoyed. "I picked everyone on this team for a reason. If anyone complains anymore, then we'll leave you behind." Eric snapped, eyeing Peter and Drew.

They both shut up.

Everyone was arguing still and my head might split from all of the noise.

I separate myself from the group and I took in the surroundings around me. Nobody seemed to notice that I was gone. Peter was the loudest and he was arguing that he should be the leader because he was the 'best'. I scoffed.

Christina was standing at the outskirts of the group and she was arguing with Peter.

We were in an amusement park. All the arguing must've distracted me from realising where I was. There was an aura of faded life. It felt like people use to come here and be happy but something happened and this place wasn't somewhere anyone would go to be happy anymore.

There was a rusty merry-go-round to my right. The paint on the horses were chipped off and it gave it an old and haunted look. Some of the metal horses bobbed in the wind. There was a tall ferris wheel that dominated the park. It looked big and it also looked like it wasn't used in a really long time. I walked up to the bar and I grabbed it with my right hand. My hand flinched at the coldness of the bar. It was cold enough to make my hand hurt from touching it from a really long time. I tested my weight on the first bar and I decided that it could hold my weight.

I proceeded to climb up, testing my weight on each bar. I had a plan.

"What the hell are you doing?" A voice said from behind me. It was Eric. I looked down at him from the bars. His microdermals winked at me under the pale moonlight.

"Its not a good idea. The Ferris Wheel is old and one of the bars might snap under you." He said, pointing at one of the bars.

"How touching but we need to find the other team before they," I pointed at our arguing group, "give off where we are." I replied, looking down at Eric.

 **E R I C**

I decided to come after her, for safety reasons. I didn't want her to slip or fall.

"How long have you been here at Dauntless?" Tris suddenly asked. She stopped and pulled her pants up, that were starting to slip.

I never realised that she didn't know my age. "Five years." I replied casually.

"You're twenty one?!"She said.

"Nah I'm just messing around. I'm 18." I replied. I swore, I heard a sigh of relief from her. We continued climbing. She tested her weight on the next bar. I heard a snap and her foot slip. My eyes widened and I quickly wrapped an arm around her waist to stop her from falling down. I could feel her breathe in and out really fast. Her eyes looked around in alarm and she looked down to the arm that I put around her waist. Her shirt went up a little bit and my hand was touching her bare skin. I took a shaky breath. Her skin was warm and soft. "Are you alright?" I asked her. I could feel her heart beating really fast. She put her foot securely on another bar. She took a deep breath. "Yeah, thanks." She said, still out of breath. I took my arm back.

She continued climbing and I asked her whether she wanted to come down or not. "Are you doubting my abilities?" She said playfully. She was still climbing. We were about halfway up the Ferris Wheel. It was starting to feel like a workout. "No, I just want to risk another bar snapping under you. You might fall down and die." I said back at her. I sounded a little bit too concerned but it was better than saying nothing.

"Its alright. I know I have you to catch me if I fall." She said jokingly with a chuckle. I shook my head with a smile on my face and I kept climbing.

We continued climbing up the bars until we moved across the middle of the Ferris Wheel. We sat down in the middle of the ferris wheel. The space was about 2 meters long. She shuffled over to make space for me. We were close, close enough that I could reach my hand out and rest it ontop of hers. She stared off into the distance and it made me wonder if she came up here to admire the view or actually search for the other team. "Why did you choose me to be in your team?" She asked me quietly. She moonlight lit half of her face up, giving it a gentle glow.

I swallowed. "Well as you can see, I'm not exactly the best shooter here." She said, facing me.

"Well, you are very tacticle and we need someone like that in the sea of small-brains." I replied, smiling a little bit. She smiled back at me.

We both sat quietly, facing the trees and the amusement park. I could still hear my team yelling at each other. I rolled my eyes.

Tris broke the line of silence.

"I found them." She said.

"Where?" I asked.

She pointed out to a spot of trees. The trees were darker there and the foliage were ontop of each other, closing off on the space underneath. The trees were about eight to ten meters high.

I knew where she was pointing but then I found an excuse to move closer to her. "I can't see." I lied. I shuffled closer to her so I could move my head to where she was pointing but she got up.

"Lets go. We have their position." She said.

So close..

She started to move across the middle of the Ferris Wheel and she started to lower herself onto the bars. I didn't realise that I was holding my breath.

Sometimes, I did wonder how she gets all that bravery and courage from.

I followed after her and we both climbed down the bars. Luckily, none of us slipped or got injured.

We both got down and we both rushed back to our team, who were still arguing. Christina saw us and she quickly turned around.

"Where were you Tris?" Christina shriek. Her loudness brought the entire group's attention on Tris and I.

Everyone said 'yeahs' to what Christina said.

As if they cared. They were all arguing.

"We climbed the ferris wheel." I replied from behind Tris.

"You what?! Guys its not the summer holidays. Its not the time to have fun and climb Ferris Wheels. We need to find the other team." Christina snapped. She was clearly frustrated at the moment.

I was going to say something back but Tris bet me to it.

"We were'nt climbing the Ferris Wheel for the fun of it. We were trying to get a high vantage point and we know where the other team is." Tris said back to Christina. Tris looked really annoyed by her friend. I would be too.

Christina shut her mouth and flushed red. She muttered something to Tris.

"We need someone to lead." Uriah said out loud.

"We don't need anyone to lead. We work together as a team. We just need someone to formulate a plan." I said over Uriah.

"Isn't that the same thing as leading?" Uriah interjected.

"Shut it. I think Tris has a nice plan." I said. Tris widened her eyes at me and she mouthed. "I don't..." but everyone turned to her to listen to her.

She visibly gulped. "Okay... so, the other team is under the thick trees west of where we got off. So we will have three people attack on the right and we will have three people attack from the left. Then, three people would creep up from behind, once their defence down and we will get their flag. Three people will stay here and guard." Tris said. She looked a little bit unsure but she looked more certain as more people nodded to her plan.

"Groups?" Christina said.

"Oh right... Christina, Eric and I will get the flag. Uriah, Will and Drew attack from the right. Peter and two others would take the left and three people stay here to guard the flag." Tris said.

"Then where are we going to put the flag?" Peter asked Tris in a manner that implied that he thought that Tris was stupid for forgetting that.

"Put it in the ferris wheel and turn the ferris wheel to the top." Tris replied to Peter.

"What if the ferris wheel doesn't work." Someone asked.

"Then lets just hope that it does work and we will have time to get the flag before they do." Tris said.

She made a hand motion, telling everyone to go to whatever they were doing. Christina and I ran after Tris.

"Great plan, Tris." I said to her. I couldn't see what her facial expression was but then I could see her cheeks pull for back with a smile.

I suggested that we run in a wide arc to the right around where the oppositions were so we can avoid bumping into the right team and we could also sneak up behind them.

We ran for a few minutes until we were a couple hundred metres behind Four's team. We hid behind a large bush. We heard an echoing creak all around us. I looked up and the Ferris Wheel was turning.

"The ferris wheel is turning! They hid the flag there!" We heard Four yell really loudly. Three people from Four's team ran towards the direction of the ferris wheel. One of them got shot down.

We heard the people of Four's team screaming because they got hit.

I looked around and I saw their flag in the trees. It was tucked between the two highest branches. The branches were really close together so someone was big as me wouldn't be able to climb it.

We then decided to attack them from behind. A few of them were left and they ran to the ferris wheel but some stayed to guard the flag.

My team came to meet up again, exclusing the ones who got shot.

"We need someome to climb the tree." Christina said.

Everyone's eyes slowly drifted to Tris.

"Fine." She sighed.

Tris started climbing while the rest of us guarded her. We sent Christina to climb after her.

Tris climbed the tree swiftly as if she climbed trees everyday.

T R I S

I was nearly at the top when someone jumped down from a branch above and onto the branch I was standing on. The branch shook violently and I screamed.

I panicked and I whacked the gun across the person's head. The person fell off the tree and everyone turned to see what happened. I ignored them and continued to climb.

The flag was within reach. Christina and I were nearly there. I leaped forward as far as I could and I grabbed the flag. Euphoria overtook me.

I screamed in victory and I held up the flag. Christina grabbed my hand and raised the flag up higher. We both yelled in victory. We yelled like banshees.

Eric was brightly smiling at me from underneath the tree. I couldn't feel any happier.


	15. Chapter 15

The next day...

T R I S

Yesterday, we went ziplining because it was 'Dauntless tradition.' With adrenaline still in my blood, I agreed to go. We came back to the compound at around 3pm.

We all woke up all groggy and tired. Everyone looked like racoons with dark circle under our eyes. I didn't have to go to Eric to train this morning because last night, he didn't tell me that there was a training session.

I thought about how Eric and I were two people who disliked each other and right now, we were on friendly terms just because of an assignment that Max gave us. It made me feel happy and.. lucky. If I didn't have the help of Eric, I would be injured or dead right now because I wouldn't really know how to fight properly.

Breakfast was eaten so we all went back to the training room. It was only Four in the room. I looked around to see if Eric was anywhere but he wasn't.

Four seemed to catch on and said, "Eric's not here. He's looking over the Dauntless borns today."

Four looked tired, even more than usual. His defeated sunk in because he looked defeated. But maybe that was because he was tired. I don't know.

When everyone came in, he started talking. "Today, we'll just be touching up. So, we'll just be perfecting everything we've learnt with something new."

I looked at Christina and she just shrugged her shoulders.

Four made a hand motion telling us to follow him. We walked through the compound and we came to a door that was closed. He inserted a key and opened the door.

We went in. It was a massive room, about the size of half a soccer field. There were projectors everywhere. There was a glass wall with seats behind it. I thought that it was there so the people sitting behind the glass could see what was happening on the other side.

"We thank the Erudite for this. This just came in a month ago. It tests you on your ability to shoot, fight and throw knives." Four started off.

He went towards a table and there was this fancy thing on it. It was like a small glove with wires all around it. "You put this on, and fake weapons like guns and knives will appear. You use them as you normally would and you shoot or throw knives or fight the targets. The weapons will change on my command so I can test you on everything. Let me demonstrate." Four said.

He put on the glove and he pressed a button, turning it on. He picked up another thing. It was like a headband but then you wear it across the back of your head.

He went to a control panel and he pressed something and he pressed another button. The projectors buzzed and turned on. Four pressed another button and a man appeared. In the middle of the room. Four pressed a few other buttons and it was running towards Four.

Four pressed something on his hand and a gun appeared in his hand. With one hand, he shot the projected man down.

"You do exactly the same but this headpiece will be controlling what weapon you have. On my command, the weapons will change." Four said.

"The control panel will control what the projectors project and what the projected people do." He continued.

Everyone seemed impressed by this.

"We've already got the rankings but this activity will give you a chance to move up. The machine will give you a score out of 100. Who wants to start?" Four asked to us, folding his muscly arms.

Everyone stepped back, except for Peter. He was cockily smirking. "Trust me, this won't be easy. Anyone who achieves a score over 95, they will move up a position." Four exclaimed.

Peter shrugged. Four told us to move behind the glass wall and sit down. We did so.

We saw Peter flexed his hands in the glove. He flashed all of us a smirk and he walked into the middle of the room.

"This isn't going to be easy." Four murmured, aiming it at Peter. Peter just shrugged his shoulders.

Four adjusted his headpiece said, "Its going to start now."

Four pressed buttons and a man appeared, like the one with Four. A knife appeared in Peter's arm and he threw it, stabbing the projected man in the arm.

Another knife appeared in Peter's hand, to replace the one he just threw. Peter threw the knife again and it hit the man directly over his heart. The knife and the man dissolved into the air.

Two men appeared and instead of a knife this time, Peter had a hand gun. He shot the first one done and he shot the other one in the leg. Three more men appeared and Peter either injured them or killed them. After he had killed all of them, five men appeared but Peter had no weapons in his hand.

Peter waited for a weapon to appear in his hand but was dissapointed when none appeared. He effortlessly took them all down. This went for about ten more minutes until Peter was sweaty and tired. Four dissmissed him.

"You scored 95.8 out of 100." A woman's voice said. I assumed that it was from the machine. Peter smirked, knowing that he would be moving up a rank.

Next was Christina who scored 71 and then Will who got 89. Then it was my turn.

I walked up from my chair uneasily. I was scared because everyone would be able to see my flaws and mistakes when I do this. I walked around the glass wall and I made my way to four who had the glove. I put it on and I made a disgusting face because the glove was sweaty.

I walked to the centre of the room and Four pressed a button and man appeared. A gun formed in my hand and I felt its solidness.

The man was running towards me and I panicked and completely missed my shot. The bullet was fake so it just dissolved after it rebounded off one of the walls.

The shot again and I shot it in the head. Another two men came, replacing the man I just shot down and they were running at me from different sides. I shot one in the leg and shot the other one in the rude part.

A few more men appeared and I shot each of them down repeatedly. I was shocked at my accuracy. A third one came from behind me and grabbed me by the neck. I turned around and I butted the end of the gun in to his head.

A woman appeared and she charged at me. I pressed the gun but before it could shoot, the gun turned into a knife. I looked at it in shock and I threw the knife, hitting the woman directly in the heart. Four men appeared and I accurately threw the knife at all of their hearts. Then, a man appeared. The knife dissapeared in my glove.

I was expecting something to appear in my hand but nothing was there. I was already tired and exhausted from shooting and throwing. The man came charging at me and I barely dodged a punch from it.

I ducked and I tackled it by the leg. It dissapeared and I crashed it onto the floor. Two women appeared and they both came at me.

The first woman lifted the second woman up and the second woman attacked me from above whereas the first woman punched me in the stomach.

I shrieked and I bit the second woman in the arm and I pulled the first woman's hair.

The first woman grabbed my arm and twisted it but I punched her in the face. This combat thing went on for a long time before Four felt like stopping.

At the end, I got a score of 80. Everyone did theirs. Edward was the only one who bet Peter. He got a score higher than Peter. He bet Peter by a score.

We were dismissed for the rest of the day because Four thought that we worked hard enough for capture the flag and for this task as well. He didn't tell us the rankings yet but I was really eager to find out. He said that he was going to hang up the rankings after lunch so we had a lot of time to kill.

Christina found this a great opportunity to catch up as friends with Will and Al. We decided to walk around the pit and see if there were any things we could buy. I walked alongside Al behind Christina and Will who were both walking very close together.

"Did I miss something?" I whispered to Al.

"Yes. I think they both like each other." Al said back. Christina and Will both sharply turned around and both said, "We don't like each other."

Their faces were both red from hearing what Al said. We all decided to go watch a movie. We watched a romance movie in one of the cinemas. It was airconditioned and Christina chose the cinema with the loveseats. Will and Christina sat together and I was forced to sit awkwardly with Al who tried to ease the tention by smiling at me once in a while. When the kissing scene came on, Al looked at me so I excused myself to go to the bathroom.

When the movie was over, Al, Christina and Will decided to go back to the dorms so I followed them back. I had a quick shower and then I went to lunch with them.

I didn't really want to go to lunch because I knew that there were going to be rankings up after lunch.

My lunch break basically was me sweating and worrying about the rankings. I barely realised what I was eating until I came to my senses. It was eating oats, at lunch... and I hated oats. It was worse eating it in Abnegation.

I was really worried because I didn't want to get cut. I couldn't right? Because Eric helped me through, trained me. Imagine Peter's taunting face and Molly's ugly laugh and Christina's pitying face. But worst of all, imagine his face, etched with dissapointment.

I didn't want to be cut also because I was in on an assignment with Eric from Max. If I don't get through initiation, it would cost 2 people their place at Dauntless.

I was too indulged in thinking that I didn't realise that Christina was getting up to toss her rubbish away. She had to jerk my shoulder and pull me up by the arm. I creased my eyebrow, knowing that the rankings were already up and that I had a chance of failing.

Christina ran to the dormitaries whereas I stalked slowly behind her, trying to delay the inevitable.

We came in and my eyes diverted to the bkackboard that was behind Eric and Four. I looked at Eric and he looked at me. His expression didn't show if I made it through or not. His face was monotonous and he had a scowl on. If I guessed correctly, he had just fought with Four.

After everyone came in, Four started talking. "Behind me are the rankings. Your rankings were from how well you fought and who you beat. If a lower ranking initiate beat you, than that would push your rank down. We examined the way you fought as well. We looked at your shooting and knife throwing technique. We also recorded the score down for the activity you did this morning and we took it into account. Don't be surprised or shocked if you get a ranking that is unexpected."

We all held our breaths when Four flipped the board around. I scanned my nane on the board. I looked at the bottom and my name wasn't there. I looked towards the top.

A sigh of relief came over me when I saw my score.

Next to my name in neat writing was the number '4'.


	16. Chapter 16

**T R I S**

A smile crept onto my face. Christina turned to me and hugged me. She came a spot below me. I placed a hand over my heart in relief. I wasn't going to be factionless.

Christina came 5th, Will came 3rd and Peter came 2nd and Edward came first.

Peter didn't say anything. His face was red and he was silently shaking. His large fists were balled up on the sides of his body. He was radiating anger.

What more did he want? He came second. He got over 95 for the exercise this morning so it pulled up his rank.

Peter looked at Edward and then looked away. I didn't want Peter's anger to bother me so I looked away.

I looked at Eric who was still scowling.

I mouthed, "thanks" to him from across the room. He just smiled back at me, discarding any evidence that he was scowling before. Luckily, everyone was too involved in discussing with what they got that they didn't notice Eric and I's little exchange.

He smirked as if he took the credit for making me pass the first stage of initiation.

Deep down, I was glad that fate somehow let me be the person who Eric had to help through initiaion.

Now, I felt confident because I had a someone who could support and help me through inititaion, Eric.

All of us were left alone for the rest of the of the day. Eric was giving us a chance to have 'fun' while we could. Christina and Will both went ahead to go the the Pit for a celebration. Something held me back from following them.

Sitting in the corner of the room on his bed was Al. Even though he was big, he managed to look defeated. His shoulders were slumped and he had a tired and sad expression on his face. His eyes were rimmed with red and his cheeks were all blotchy.

"Al, what's wrong." I aked gently. Everyone had already left so it was just Al and I in the room.

"I came second-last." He said quietly. He stared at a spot infront of him. His eyes that were usually bright and happy were now dull and lifeless. He looked like one of his family members just died. "I'm going to get cut." He continued. His voice was rasp, barely a whisper.

I sighed. "Al, you don't know if you are going to get cut or not. They still take the Dauntless-born rankings into account." I replied, putting my hand on his arm in a comforting gesture. I knew that there was a high chance that he might get cut but I didn't want to point that out to sadden him more than he already is.

"But look at the Dauntless borns. They were brough up to fight and they are all probably really good." Al replied to me. He didn't seem comforted at all by what I said. I opened and closed my mouth. I scoured my brain for something to reassure him of what he just said.

"Al, you have to be optimistic. Look at you. You are amazing at fighting. You won your first fight and you got a good score for the task we did this morning. Don't find a reason to be upset just because you didn't get a good rank. You might be better than half of the Dauntless-borns for all we know. Now come on. We have to celebrate." I said to Al. He looked at me and wiped some tears off his face. He put on a genuine smile.

"Okay." He said.

I pulled his arm up and we both walked to the direction of the Pit.

We saw Christina and Will in a restuarant. I grabbed Al's hand and I dragged him into the restuarant. Al laughed and followed along. It was a small resturant and the food there was a little bit better than the food they served in the cafeteria. They had small tables with a small photobooth in the corner. Al seemed happier now and I felt proud becuase I made him be happy.

I ordered some food and a smoothie to go with it. Al, Will and Christina ordered the same too. While we were waiting for our food, we left our jackets at our tables so no-one would take our table while we were gone.

We made our way to the photobooth and Christina swiped her card with all the Dauntless credits with it.

The four of us crammed into the photobooth and we all posed for the photos. Al and I took one set of photos. In one of the photos, I was on Al's back.

Christina and I took another set of photos where we were both hugging and we made silly faces at the camera. In the last set, all Four of us came in and we had fun.

The waitress served our food. I had some spaghetti, Al had some rice, Will had some chips with fish and Christina had the same as me.

"So what are you guys planning to do after initiation?" Will asked in interest.

"Work in the tattoo parlour or at a makeup store." Christina replied, her mouth full with food.

"I really want to be a cinema operator, that's if I make it through." Al said next.

We all look at him weirdly. "Why." I said.

"I like to watch couples cuddle up to remind me of my loneliness. I mean, the person I like probably doesn't like me back." Al said. He added in a joking manner but something in his facial expression suggested that he actually meant what he said.

"Who do you like?" Christina asked. She leaned forward in her seat in interest. Will riased his eyebrow in interest but he kept his eye on his food. I had a feeling that I knew who it was. Al's eyes flickered to me momentarily before he looked down. I found myself flushing. "No one."

I continued eating my food.

"Well, I want to work in the computer room." Will said.

Everyone looked at me. "I don't know yet." I replied.

I was tired when we went back and happy as well.

In the middle of the night, I couldn't sleep. I was still filled with the rush of making through the first stage of initiation.

I was pretty sure that everyone else was awake. Well everyone except for Molly. She was drinking last night so she's passed out. I turned into my side and I stared at Christina who was next to me. It was dark so I couldn't tell if she had her eyes closed or not.

Suddenly, there was a loud scream. I sat upright so fast that I suddenly felt dizzy. I wad scared so I clutched onto my blanket. My eyes were wide and I was searching around for whoever made that sound but it was no use because ot was dark all around.

"Turn on the lights!" Someone shrieked. The air was filled with panic. Someone tripped over something. The screaming still continued and we all wondered what had happened. My ears hurt from people yelling.

The lights suddenly came on and thr abrupt change in lighting hurt my eyes. I threw my blanket aside quickly and I stood up. I looked around.

Someone was on the floor, the bloody floor.

The screaming was still continuing.

Another person screamed. It was Christina. Her hand was covered over her mouth and her face was deathly white despite her dark complexion. She was pointing at the person on the floor. The person was lying across the floor with his or her hands clutched to his face.

I rushed towards that person since everyone was either too scared or shocked to deal with the situation. It was Edward. His blonde hair was sticky with blood.

My mind flashed back to yesterday when I saw Edward happy with his success in first place. Now he was in agonizing pain. He doesn't deserve this, I thought sadly.

There was something sticking out of his eye. I crouched over him and he whimpered, "It hurts."

Well nah.

"I know." I said gently. I was shocked at how calm I was. In under circumstances, I would be pissing my pants at the moment. It was probably because I was too shocked to act recklessly and no one here would step up.

"Take it out." He continued.

I looked at him in a pityful manner. His face was scrunched up in pain and his body was violently convulsing as well.

Everyone was retching and some were screaming at the sight.

"Stay calm until someone calls some authorities." I instruct in a stern voice.

"How can I stay calm?! I have a knife in my eye for goodness sake!" He screeched. He was still moaning in pain.

I gently pried his hand off the knife and I layed them down by his side. My hands and knees were covered in blood.

"Stop shaking." I ordered. His shaking might accidently create more damage.

I looked around. Two people were missing. Drew and Peter.

I looked at Christina and she seemed to be thinking the same thing.

"Keep your head still." I said and I put my hands around his head to keep it still.

Everyone was throwing up and screaming at the sight.

"Stay calm otherwise it will make the situation worse!" I yell, sending a look at everyone in the room. I was amazed at the affect I had on everyone at the moment. It built some new confidence.

"Get Eric or Four." I said to Christina.

She nodded and she left the room to find Eric or Four.

After a few minutes, I managed to finally calm everyone down.

When Eric came, he had a doctor and nurses behind him.

He looked at Edward and then he looked at me. I was covered in blood so Eric looked at me worriedly. He must've thought that I got hurt.

Suddenly, two people came in through the door. They looked down at the body and immediately, their faces contorted in disgust.

It was Peter and Drew. "What happened?" Peter asked. His face was now etched with worry but I knew this was all just an act. He was just trying to cover up what he did.

Eric eyes Peter and told everyone to get all of our belongings and get out.

After we grabbed all of our belongings, we followed Eric to another dormitary. He opened the door to a room with many beds. Half of them were occupied.

Everyone had sat up at the sound of the door beind opened. It was the Dauntless borns.

"What are they doing here?" Someone in the back yelled.

"There has been an incident in the transfer dorms. Someone got stabbed. Because of that, we are permanently moving the transfers into this dorm. I trust you to be civil with each other because from now on, you will be ranked together." Eric said.

He looked at everyone and then he left. I could tell that the Dauntless borns weren't really happy with us but then they stayed quiet because we just saw someone get stabbed. All the Daunessborns looked at my blood-covered clothes and immediately started whispering that I was the one that stabbed someone. I widened my eyes. Do they seriously think that I stabbed Edward.

"Stop it guys. Tris only helped the person who got stabbed and she calmed everyone down and made the situation better so don't go blabbering sh*t before you know the actual truth." A voice said from next to me. Al was slightly infront of me in a protective.

"Jeez." One dauntlessborn said.

"Thanks, Al." I whisper to Al.

"They're douches." Al replied.

This was a different type of Al, the one who stood up for his friend, not the guy who cried because he thought that he was going to get cut.

Although I didn't say it to Al, he was really brave.

We all didnt sleep that well for the rest of the night. Uriah was nice to me. I chose a bed next to him and Christina chose the bed next to me.

Nobody could really sleep for the rest of the night. The image of Edward's bloody body kept resurfacing in my head.

I was pretty sure that Peter had done it because when the rankings came out, he was really pissed and he looked murderous even. I was also sure that he stabbed Edward because he was upset with 2nd place. Now I know that he will get to any lengths to get what he wants.

During breakfast, news got around of what happened. Someone told us that Edward had left over the night and Myra followed him since they were dating.

After breakfast, Four and Eric lead us to another place. It was near the chasm but you could only access it by climbing a ladder up the side of a chasm. How safe. Note the sarcasm.

Once we got there, we each climbed into the room. It was set out like a waiting room with chairs on the side.

On the far side of the room, there was a door that lead to another room. There was no window in the door so I didn't know what was on the other side.

We all sat down on the chairs. I sat next to Uriah, well he sat next to me and he introduced a card game while we were playing.

I was a little bit new to playing games because we weren't allowed to play any sort of games.

We played snap and other card games with Al, Christina, Will, Lynn and Marlene. Marlene was on my capture the flag team. She greeted me nicely and she was really welcoming. Lynn was very tough and she didn't show whether she liked me or not. they both didn't seem bothered that I was from Abnegation.

The first person who went into the room was Molly. Four was testing her and Eric was out here supervising us. Because of what just happened, Eric was just making sure that nothing else happened like that.

Molly was the first person to go in. When she came out, I immediately got scared. Her face was drained of colour and she could barely walk straight. Four had to help her out of the room. I strained ny neck to look at what was inside the room but then the door shut. Molly's lips were quivering and she had more sweat than someone who had just ran a marathon.

"What happened?" I whispered to Uriah.

"I don't know but it doesn't look good." He replied back.

We stopped playing card games after Molly. I started jiggling my leg while I was waiting because I was nervous. If Molly couldn't handle what was inside the room, then I was sure that I wouldn't be able to.

After Will had came out, Four called my name. I looked at Eric as I walked past him and he gave me a small smile that was only noticeable if you looked closely enough.

I came into the room and I stopped walking when I saw what was in the room. Four bumped into me from behind because I stopped walking.

"Are those the chairs from the test?" I asked him quietly.

They were exactly like the chairs we sat in when we took our aptitude test.

My mind suddenly flashed back to my aptitude test and to Tori's warning.

"Not the exact chairs but similar." Four answered.

"Take a seat." He said to me.

He looked at me as if he wanted to say something more but didn't say so. I looked at him suspiciously.

He picked up a syringe. "I'll inject this into you and its a...

"How long do you think you've been in there for?" Four asked me. His hand was placed on my shoulder to comfort me. I was sweating like Molly did and my eyes were searching around for the birds that were in my sinulation.

I was breathing very fast.

When I calmed down, I replied, "20 minutes."

I got up from my seat and I made my way over to the wall and leaned against it with my hands on my knees.

"No. You were in there were three minutes. You were three times faster than all the other people who went before you." He replied. He looked impressed.

A weight lifted off my chest.

"You'll improve next time." He replied.

"You mean there's a next time?!" I said in disbelief. It was worse going through it one time. I slid along the wall and crouched on the ground.

"Yes." Four replied.

There was silence.

Four took a deep breath and said, "Can I ask you something."

I looked up at him and nodded my head.

"Have you been getting help from anyone?" He asked slowly. I snapped my eyes up to him, worried. Was he suppose to know that Max gave Eric an assignment to get me through initiation. I thought he already knew but from the looks of it, he obviously didn't.

"No. What delusion are you under?" I ask him. Uneasiness started to overcome me.

"I'm not under any delusion. I just don't believe that you suddenly just become good at fighting and you suddenly develop fighting techniques that are so similar to someone I know." Four answered. I gulped.


	17. Chapter 17

T R I S

"What? No, of course not." I stuttered. I put a strand of loose hair behind my ear. I've never been the best at lying. Even a non-Candor could tell if I was lying. I twist my hands together on my lap. I started to sweat, making my hands slippery.

"Well, I think you are lying." Four said. He was studying me critically. His blue eyes were looking at me, searching for any signs that confirmed what he just said.

"No I'm not." I replied, too quickly.

"Even if you were telling the truth, it still looks like you got help from someone and I think that person is Eric." He replied, looking at me dead in the eye. His lips were pressed together. He shrugged of his jacket and he hung it around the back of his chair. He slid his chair closer, kind of like as if he was trying to size me up while sitting down.

"I've known Eric for a very long time and I've seen the way he fights and uses weapons and you resemble him in many ways." Four said, when I didn't reply.

"No. It must be a coincidence because, why on Earth would I get help from anyone. That's cheating." I said. I was kind of insulting myself but then I realised that I didn't ask for help and that help came to me.

"I saw you yesterday. You thanked him. And remember the time when I met you in the Pit and you were waiting for Eric? You were probably waiting for him to train you. It all matches up." Four continued. He was pressing too quickly and my brain was panicking. I didn't know what to say to make Four think that I wasn't getting any help.

Would it be bad to tell Four that Eric's been helping me? The good thing about telling Four was that I could get it off my chest because it was starting to become a problem because I've been lying to Christina about where I have been in the morning. To think about it, I felt more comfortable telling Christina because she was my best friend. I barely knew Four. Heck, I didn't even know his real name.

Even if I explain to Four how Eric's been helping me for an 'assignment', he might not see past that and he might think that I am a cheater, who is too desperate and would ask a qualified person or help.

I'm over thinking it.

My chances of lying my way out of this situation was pretty thin to none.

My heart was beating fast and I was split down to the final decision of telling him or not telling him. I looked up at Four and he raised his eyebrows at me as if he was expecting an answer.

"Its an assignment." I finally huffed out, looking down at my hands. I was expecting Four to understand and be like 'okay, you could've told me like 5 seconds ago' but, apparently not.

"An assignment?" Four repeated. He said it as if he didn't believe anything I just said.

"Yes, an assignment. Eric came up to me and said that he was put into an assignment from Max and he had to get me through initiation." I quickly replied. I was bracing for what Four was going to say.

"He's lying. I've seen all the meeting footage from the control room and I've never seen Max talk with Eric about this 'assignment'. And, Max has never given out any assignments like that before. And, Eric looks too willing to do this assignment. I know Eric, he would never accept an assignment like that. He doesn't help the weak." Four said.

"So you're calling me weak?" I said. Out of all the things I decide to pick on from what he said, I decide on this.

"No, I'm sorry. I meant at the beginning of initiation. But now, you're far from weak." Four said. He had a hint of true sincerity and I flashed a small smile at him.

"Anyways, if you're saying that Eric is lying, then why would he be helping me?" I asked Four.

"Look, I have a theory. What was your aptitude test result." Four asked quietly, as if he didn't want anyone outside to hear. I was pretty sure that Eric was right outside the door because the last time I saw him, he was near the door while supervising us.

"Abnegation, why?" I replied, at the same level of quietness as Four's tone. I had a feeling that his theory isn't good, since he just asked me what my aptitude test result was. Did this have to do with me being Divergent?

"You can't tell anyone, but I think that Eric is lying about this 'assignment' to get you closer to him so he can see if you are Divergent." Four whispered. We were leaning very close, exchanging quiet words so the people outside won't hear us. Tori told me that the leaders were dangerous, especially to Divergents. Like the night when I got my tattoo, I found it really hard to believe what Tori said about Eric killing Divergents. Tori said that Dauntless leaders trick people to come cloeser to them to see if they were Divergent and thrn they would kill them, making their deaths look accidental.

When Tori said it, I doubted that Eric would do this but when Four said it a second time, I was starting to consider what he was saying.

I felt a painful tug at my chest, just thinking about how Eric and the other leaders might be responsible for the other deaths.

Tori said that Eric and the leaders killed her brother. Four said that Eric killed Amar.

I had two different people who told me that Eric had a hand in someone's death. How could I choose not to believe Four when there is so much evidence, proving that Eric is behind the killings.

Was he just faking to like me, just to get closer to me and kill me? Was all this fake? I could feel tears starting to swell up but then I fought them down.

"What's Divergent?" I replied, lying. I swallowed a huge lump in my throat. My hands were shaking. Tori said that being Divergent is dangerous. So, pretending that I don't know what Divergent is would make Four think that I am not Divergent because, who would think that I am Divergent when I don't 'know' what Divergent is.

"It's when you have multiple aptitudes for different factions." Four replied, not noticing that I had just lied.

"Eric's tricking you, to get closer to you. Let me tell you something. I had an instructor, Amar..." Four started but I cut him off.

"I know already." I said quietly.

"I don't know if I should believe you about the whole 'Eric tricking me' thing." I continued. I believed Four already but I needed a reason a reason from him to make me fully believe him.

"Look Tris, as I said before, Max has never given out assignments like that. Eric's decieving and he would never help an initiate through an initiation. Max and Eric both believe that help through initiation isn't fair and it doesn't let the initiate discover their true bravery when someone is helping them." Four replied. He was talkig to me as if he was trying to tell a child that their parents have died.

"So what do I do?" I replied in a shaky voice.

"Cut connections off with him. It's better like that. It will prevent him from finding out more." Four said.

"What if he gets upset and cuts me off from initiation?" I ask Four. My eyes were tearing up for the first time in front of someone for it. I hated myself for crying, for showing weakness but I was just too overwhelmed with what was happening right now.

"I won't let that happen." Four replied. He had such firmness in his voice that I felt so reassured by him.

I was just starting to accept and feel that Eric was becoming a better person. For once, I felt special because Eric was so nice to me.

I closed my eyes and let out a sigh. This was all fake.

I went back to the dorms after my simulation and I stayed there until dinner.

I seriously didn't feel like eating but then Christina insisted, saying that it was bad to skip a meal. I followed Christina into the dining hall and I just ate 3 slices of Dauntless cake. Al seemed to notice what was wrong because I usually only eat 1 slice of Dauntless cake with other things. He slid across the seat closer to me and he put his hand on my arm, offering me silent comfort. It was all I needed. I didn't want to talk about this to my friends because their reactions to Eric helping me might hurt me even worse. I didn't need that.

I just felt sad and really stupid for believing Eric. As much as I tried to not believe it, he was still a cruel person with no heart. Everything from just seemed so genuine that it was almost convincing enough for me to deny Four's accusations of Eric luring me in.

**  
When I got back into the dormitary, there was a note that was tucked under my pillow, from Eric. He told me to meet him tomorrow morning at 5 at the pit.

I scrunched up the paper and flushed it down the toilet without any hesitation. I knew that if I went to meet him,then I would be falling deeper into his trap and I new that I wouldn't be able to out out. Why was this?

Why did it hurt so much, thinking about the lies Eric carried out. Why did I care so much about this? Any other person would be terrified that a Dauntless leader suspects them of Divergence. But I was the opposite of that. I felt betrayed because I believed Eric's whole scheme.

I laid silently at night and I just ignored Peter when he threw his usual insults at me. If this was any other day, I would be bothered to argue with Peter but today, I didn't feel like it.

I had Eric's knife in my hand. I was running my fingers over the sharp hilt and over the engravings. I remembered when he gave it to me, just a few short days ago. That was when I didn't know about the lies and decieving.

Was this knife given to me just to bribe me into liking him?

The knife in my hand was a reminder of what he had done and the damage he had caused to me. It was suddenly heavier in my hand as if some meaning was suddenly pressed down on it.

Then it struck me.

I liked Eric and my heartbreak was the reason why I felt so hurt.


	18. Chapter 18

**T R I S**

That was when the tears started slipping.

The next morning, I woke up with swollen eyes. I felt so tired and I thinking about what happened yesterday made me feel even more tired. I felt emotionally drained.

I patted my swollen eyelids to reduce the swelling and after a while, the swelling went down. I was glad for that because I didn't want people to see me crying.

I didn't want see Eric today because I was suppose to meet him this morning. I didn't want him to confront me and ask me why. I didn't want him to talk to me.

I thought about what would've happened if I didn't flush the note down the toilet and I did meet him this morning.

I put on a smile and I waved at Christina in the morning. I tried to cover up any evidence that I was upset yesterday because I didn't want anyone to ask me questions. Christina seemed a little bit weirded out by the sudden mood change from yesterday to today. She wore the same thing she wore everyday. Christina volunteered to pick out what I would wear for the day. It wasn't because I was lazy. She just knew that there was something was still wrong so she was just trying to make my morning easier.

She brought me a simple black V-neck shirt and long black leggings that were tight. She said that these pants would make my legs look longer. I didn't care what I wore because the colour matched my mood right now.

We ate breakfast like every other day and then we went to the simulation room, the room I was dreading. I wasn't ready to see Eric. I didn't want to because I was afraid that I would lose my grip on my emotions and I would yell in his face for lying to me.

Christina got my breakfast for me this morning and she filled with it lots of things and she was watching me carefully, making sure that I ate all of it. She thought that I was acting different because of my simulation yesterday. I didn't tell her the truth because it was better to let her think that then to know that I have been getting help from Eric and that I was upset that Eric lied to me. That morning, I didn't see Eric in the dining hall so I hoped that I wouldn't see him for the rest of the day.

In the simulation room, it was just Four and I gave out a really loud sigh of relief. I didn't have to look at Eric today. Four made us wait outside and he sat with us and talked us about some ways we could deal with our fears in the simulation. We were interrupted when the door opened and someone came strolling in .

For the first time, I actually felt disgust when I saw him. My feeling of betrayal and heartbreak turned into disgust overnight. It was Eric.

Something looked different about him today. Four seemed to notice it too. Eric put more effort into his hair than he usually does. He gelled his hair. It was gelled back and was out of his face. His face seemed brighter a little bit but that didn't change what I thought about him. He was wearing the black clothes he wears everyday.

His eyes scanned the room. I knew who he was looking for, me. I turned my head away and pretended that I didn't see Eric.

He walked past me and he walked next to Four. They were discussing things until Four decided to manage the simulations. Eric was supervising us like yesterday. Uriah brought his deck of cards so while we were all waiting for the simulation. It was temporary distraction from the fears that we were inevitably going to face in the simulation.

I avoided looking at Eric for as long as I could. Every time he tried to look at me, I turned to the person next to me and I started talking about the most random things. Eric seemed to notice that something was off about me and he knew that it had something to do with him.

Uriah decided to stop playing card games and he introduced another game called 'shoot, shag, marry'. Just from hearing the title of the game, I knew that the game was going to be interesting.

Will, Christina, Peter, Al, Marlene, Uriah, Lynn, Al and I were playing.

"So, I'll give you three names of people you know and you have to choose one you would shoot, shag and marry. Also, you also have to justify your answer." Uriah said.

"What's shag?" Christina said.

"The British people use to use that word as a word for 'have sex'." Uriah said.

"Oh." Christina replied.

I didn't comfortable with playing but everyone in the circle insisted that I played. How bad could it be.

"Who's gonna start?" Will said.

"I will." Uriah said, like a happy kid.

"Okay. I'm going to choose a person." Uriah said. He immediately turned to his right, facing Marlene.

Their faces were close with each other and Marlene flushed pink.

"Marlene, shoot, shag and marry... Donald Trump, Adolf Hitler and Eric." Uriah said. My mind flicked back to the history lessons I had in school. Donald Trump was this guy who ran for president long ago. I don't really remember him, he wasn't that important. Adolf Hitler was a German dude who started World war II. Oh, Adolf Hitler was the one with the really cool moustache. And Eric was standing near us, listening to his game. His eyes briefly connected with mine and he looked like he was conveying a silent message as if to ask "what's wrong". I broke my eye contact with him. I didn't need to waste my time with him.

Marlene's face immediately made a disgusted face as if she just saw some poop lying on the ground.

"Uriah, your fascination with Adolf Hitler is very weird." Marlene said. Uriah just chuckled.

"Answer the question, hurry." Uriah whined.

"I would shoot Adolf Hitler because he's just a maniac." Marlene said. Uriah just made a sound as if he got shot.

"He wasn't that bad." Uriah mumbled.

Marlene really wasn't kidding about the whole 'obsession with Adolf Hitler' thing.

Marlene rolled her eyes at Uriah at what he just said.

"I would shag Donald Trump because he was less of a maniac than Hitler." Marlene continued.

"So you would marry Eric?" I said. I put some tone into my voice as if that idea of marrying Eric was totally unbelievable. I flicked my eyes up to Eric and I saw that his face was etched with pure hurt.

I almost felt guilty for making him upset but he made me upset too. He was probably lying about it, to be honest.

"Duh. He has the body of Adonis." Marlene whispered the last part. Her face flushed red.

There was something tingling in me, an emotion. Seeping through my heartbreak and betrayal, I still felt something for Eric and I something in me was still holding onto that.

Marlene had to choose someone to go next.

"Christina. SSM, Will.. Four and Marcus from Abnegation." Marlene said. Everyone looked at Christina to see her answer. She made a gagging motion and the mention of the Abnegation leader.

Christina quickly glanced over at Will and said.

"Marry Will because I know him best." Christina said quickly before anyone can say anything else.

"Kill Marcus because he's old. And I will shag Four because he is the only one left." Christina said.

"I ship Willstina." Marlene said with a loud fangirl-like shriek.

"Willstina?" Uriah said, with one eyebrow raised in a questioning manner.

"Yeah. You have to admit, its a really good ship name." Marlene said. Will turned red while Christina glared at Tris.

"Tris, shoot, shag marry...," Christina said quickly to get everyone's attention off her, "Eric, Peter and Al." Christina continued.

In my peripherals, I could see Eric's head tilted our way. He was looking somewhere else but I could tell that he was interested.

"I would shoot Eric because, who wouldn't want to." I said, loud enough so Eric could hear.

Christina widened her eyes and said, "Keep it down." Everyone was afraid that Eric would hear when I just said. But I wasn't.

I wanted the point across that I wasn't happy with Eric at the moment.

Judging from his facial expression, he heard what I said. His face had a red tint to it and he looked upset at the same time.

"I would marry Al because he is the nicest person and he doesn't lie." I said, emphasising on the last word. Al smiled at me.

Now, Eric was listening to every word I said.

"And the last option, you guys know" I replied.

I felt victorious because I made Eric feel something.

"Will, SSM, Christina, Al and Max." I said to Will.

I looked at Eric while Will was answering my question. His expression had went from sadness to another expression...

Heartbreak?

No, it couldn't be possible.

But that was the exact same look I had on my face when I found about what Eric did.

Yesterday, I felt hollow, sad, empty and I knew that no one could fake a look of pure sadness and heartbreak ...but Eric did.

Was he faking it?

..Did Eric like me?

I realised that I was upset because he made me upset but right now, I was doing the exact same thing back to him.

I needed to talk to him. I needed to confirm from Eric about what Four said.

We finished our game of SSM because everyone already had their turn.

The door to the simulation room opened and then Four popped out along with Peter.

Peter was smirking.

Four looked around the room and then his eyes settled on me. He made a hand motion, telling me that it was my turn.

I got up from my cross legged position and I winced when my knees ached at the sudden movement. I was sitting down too long.

I walked towards Four and I walked past Eric.

Unlike yesterday, Eric didn't give me any small smile of reassurance. He just turned away when I walked past. It was amazing how one day could change someone's perspective of another person.

I walked through the door and I felt Four's hands on the small of my back as he gently guided me into the room.

Four looked at me and he knew that I was upset.

"Are you alright?" He asked me. He was asking me if I was okay since yesterday. His voice was soft and careful as if he already knew that I wasn't okay.

Whenever Eric asked me if I was alright, he said it as though he knew that I was strong enough to overcome whatever made me upset. I felt a puncture in my heart. I let out a gasp of hair. I took a deep breath in to control myself.

I looked at the door and I nodded my head.

 _But I'm not okay_.

"Good." Four said. I sat down on the chair and then I adjusted my position to make myself more comfortable. I looked at Four while he was setting up the simulation.

Something about what Four said yesterday seemed to biased.

Four typed something into the computer and he turned around in his chair.

"Tomorrow, you are going to go through the simulation again and the day after that, you are going through the fears of Lauren. She's the Dauntless born instructor. With today and tomorrow's time scores of your simulation, we are going to put your best one up on the rankings list." Four explained.

I turned to face him and I nodded.

"Yesterday, your score was three minutes and forty-three seconds." Four continues. He sets up the patches and connects them to the computer. After that, he places the patches onto me.

"Ready?" He said.

I nodded my head and laid down back onto the reclined chair.

**  
I woke up, heart beating and face wet with sweat. I looked around and I saw Four.

My arms flailed around and I sighed in relief when I realised that the glass box wasn't there. My clothes were all dry.

I cracked he glass..

Four looked up at me, his face plastered with disbelief.

"You're Divergent." He whispered, barely audible.

Now, my heart was beating faster than It did when I woke up in the simulation.

I was filled with panic. I took a deep breath.

"No I'm not because yesterday, you said that Divergents are people with multiple aptitudes. How does this have to do with me?" I said to Four, there was an edge of certainty in my voice that it almost convinced me that I wasn't Divergent. I found my point convincing enough.

Since when was I good at lying?

"Divergents are people who manipulate the simulation. They're people who know that simulations aren't real so they warp the simulation to what they need. Tris, Dauntless don't break the glass like that." Four said.

I didn't trust Four. Just because he told me that Eric shouldn't be trusted, doesn't mean that I should trust Four with my secret of being Divergent.

I suddenly felt confident with lying.

"I was in the glass and the box was filling up and in my head, I was just praying that the glass would break. And it just broke. I thought I was going to drown." My eyes were wide.

Four paused for a while.

"So you just wished and it broke?" He asked me as if he thought I was joking.

"Fine. You can go. Your time was three minutes and forty seconds." He said. He sounded like he believed whatever I just said.

I thanked him and he opened the door to let me through. I got out and Four called in the next person.

When everyone was done with the simulation, everyone was dismissed for the rest of the day. I quickly got out of the room just incase Eric decided to pull me back and ask me questions.

After my close encounter with Four, I didn't feel like talking to Eric.

We all went to dinner and we all decided not to talk about our simulations during dinner.

I tried to melt into the conversation with my friends and enjoy the moment. Marlene mentioned that today, there was night shopping. Night shopping occurred a few times every month and that was when shops were open later than usual.

To get my mind off what was happening, my friends and I decided to go shopping.

We bought more shirts and pants with our Dauntless credits.

Uriah got another tattoo and we all went shopping for shoes while we waited for him.

Christina got a pair of shoes for running, a pair of shoes for everyday walking and some heels incase she needed them. She made me two running shoes and some flats that she thought would looks nice on my small feet.

Marlene got lots of heels and got a toe ring as well.

After that, we bought dresses for different occasions.

At night, we showered and I put my things in my trunk. I was starting to run out of space.

I took a long and hot shower and contemplated for a very long time.

I took my time while washing my hair and my body. I wanted to enjoy the moment while I could. Christina was showering in the shower next to mine and we were talking about the most random things. After that, we got dressed in our pjs and we sat down.

Marlene painted our nails black for the fun of it.

Sleep came easy tonight. I felt like something big was going to happen tomorrow.

Are you guys excited? I finally got Tris to admit her feelings for Eric. In the later chapters, a lot of things are going to happen. I will try to update as soon as possible to keep you guys from waiting but what's a story with no suspense ? ;) See ya!


	19. Chapter 19

T R I S

My simulation today wasn't much different to the one I did yesterday. There was the glass box and Four told me, "Try to find alternatives to making you feel calm."

I took off my jacket and stuffed it in the hole where the water was coming from. I lifted my head up into the little pocket of the air at the top and calmed my breathing until my heart went back to its normal rate.

My time was a little bit over three minutes. Four didn't discuss anything with me because he knew that I didn't want to talk about it. The entire situation was still bothering me and there would be a jab in my chest whenever I thought about it.

The rankings would be up after dinner. I didn't know whether to be relieved that the end of initiation was coming closer or worried about Eric's reaction if I keep ignoring him.

Last night, there wasn't a note on my bed, telling me to meet Eric at the Pit the next morning. It seemed as though my whish of not seeing Eric came true.

But I missed feeling his company whenever we trained in the training room. I missed his occasional smile or nod of encouragement whenever it was my turn to do things.

Throughout dinner, my friends avoided talking about our simulations. Christina said to 'enjoy it while we can'.

Marlene and Uriah were arguing over something stupid. Lynn kept peeling back the gladwrap on her fresh tattoo to see if it was still red. The rest of us was just talking about our childhood stories from Abnegation. I had nothing much to share with the others because I was literally not allowed to do anything interesting. Thinking back, the guilt was starting to eat me. The betrayed stare of my dad when my blood dripped onto the Dauntless bowls was starting to haunt me. My mum looked like she understood but it seemed forced, like she supressed her selfishness for wanting me to stay back in Abnegation.

After dinner, we walked to the training room. We were excited and worried at the same time. Al linked his arm underneath mines while we walked. I smiled at him. It was like he was offering comfort without saying anything. I appreciated that.

I clenched my fists as we got closer to the dormitaries. I was worried.

What if my times weren't good enough? What if Four saw past my lie and suspected me of my Divergence? He couldn't be that much of a threat if he warned me of other people right?

The doors to the dormitories were opened and I walked in, expecting the scores to be up but then someone was still writing the scores up, with the board turned the other way.

The person was Four. I felt a twinge if disappointment when I realised that it wasn't Eric. Although I hated him for lying to me, I was still longing for the presence of him.

Four was writing in chalk and I knew that whatever he was writing could mean the end of someone's journey in Dauntless.

Peter was already in the room and he was glaring at me for no reason. I didn't feel like glaring back so I preoccupied myself with talking with Christina. It was small talk until Four finished writing the names. Uriah was next to me and his arm brushed next to mine. He looked down and smiled, trying to ease the tension that was in the atmosphere.

Four stepped out from behind the board and then he said, "Congratulations. Today is the end of stage two of initiation. Last four people will be cut, unfortunately. Tomorrow, we will let you off on a free day. As I mentioned of each one of you before, the day after tomorrow, you are going to go through one of the fears from Lauren's fear landscape."

Four said.

He flipped the board and I could feel my eyes slide down to the bottom of the list to find my name.

My name wasn't there.

I looked at the top.

My name was first with my best time written next to it.

I looked around the room, searching around for someone to share my happiness..

But then he wasn't here.

I was looking for Eric.

My smile faded.

From across the room, Peter stared at me with so much hatred. I felt like shrinking down but then, I shouldn't be affected by this. It was his fault that he didn't place first.

Then, I realised what Peter did to Edward because Edward came first place. I felt a sense of worry and dread wash over me.

I looked at Christina and she smiled at me. I looked down the list. She was fifth. Will was fourth and Al was just made it from the factionless cut off line. Al had moved to sit on his bed and his shoulder was slumped and I swore, I could see a few tears. I tried to move past Christina but then she grabbed my shoulders and jumped up and down in excitement. I forced a smile with her.

I was going to go to Al but Peter came up to us.

"You guys shouldn't be happy." He said bitterly. His green eyes looked at me. His mouth formed a snarl.

Will and Christina glared back at Peter.

"Shove off Peter, stop being so sour." Will said, stepping infront of me.

"Think about it. Don't you wonder why she did better than all of you. She's hiding a secret. What's her key to success?" Peter said, in his sly voice. He glanced over at me.

Both Christina and Will looked at me expectantly but I didn't answer them.

"At least tell your friends." He said. With that, he walked past me, bumping into my shoulder.

As soon as he left the room, Christina and Will turn to face me. They were infront of me on either sides and they were both taller than me and I felt like I was being sized up on. Their expressions turned from defensive to betrayed.

"Is it true, Tris?" Christina said. Their arms were crossed.

"Is what true?" I asked Christina back.

"Is Peter telling the truth? Is there an actual way to make the simulations easier?" Will said. His facial expressions said that he really didn't want to be in this situation at the moment.

"Of course not." I replied, laughing it off. I felt a stab in my chest. Did they actually believe Peter?

"Really? How come our time differences are by a few minutes? Is there something you're not telling us?" Christina said.

I exhaled deeply and I clenched my fists.

"What I can't believe is that you both chose to believe Peter over me, your friend." I said back to them with a betrayed look on my face.

I walked past both of them and they both stepped aside to let me through.

I walked towards Al and I sat down next to him. Both Christina and Will left the room.

"Tris, don't worry about Chris and Will. They're just upset that you did better than them. For me, I think that you did exceptionally well." He said, giving me a smile. A look in his eyes gave away a feeling that he didn't actually mean what he said. His smile wasn't like his usual smile.

"Thanks." I replied, despite my suspicions.

"But away from me, what about you?" I said to him.

I put a hand on his arm.

"I don't know Tris. I'm going to get cut." He said quietly. His head was faced down and his hands were clenched on the frame of the bed.

"No you're not. There is space to improve. They're cutting the last four. You're not apart of the last four. You can improve." I said, lowering my voice to make it more gentler after fighting with Christina and Will.

It was the middle of the night. I checked on my wristwatch. I couldn't sleep. Before I went to sleep, Christina and Will both gave me looks before I went to sleep. I felt even more sadder than I was before. I've been lied to and now my friends have sided with the enemy.

Peter and Drew were absent when I went to sleep. Uriah and Marlene just hung out with me before I slept to fill in for Christina and Will. Uriah comforted me and Marlene distracted me with shopping ideas. I was grateful that some people were nice to me.

I had Eric's knife in my hand. It was suppose to be a reminder of what Eric did to me but surprising, it comforted me. It was in my hand and I was just rubbing my thumb continuously over the inscription.

My mind was buzzing with energy and I didn't feel like sleeping. I got up out of my bed. I decided to kill time at the training room.

I didn't bother to check if there was anyone watching me. I was too upset with Christina, Will and Eric to care. I tucked my knife in my shoe, just incase something happened. I felt reassured with the knife pressed against my foot.

I walked towards the door of the room and I cracked it open and dull light spilled in.

I walked through and I rubbed my eyes. It was a bit cold but then I wasn't bothered to go back inside and get my jacket.

It was 2am at the moment and I was pretty sure that no one was awake at the moment. I ran my hand along the cold wall.

I walked in the direction of my training room.

Suddenly, I heard footsteps. There was more than one person. I shrugged if off. It was probably some group of people coming home after their drinks.

I felt a hand clamp over my mouth. My eyes widened and I tried to turn around to see who it was but there was another person who grabbed both of my arms and some other person who violently tied a blindfold around my eyes.

I screamed as loud as I could but then my scream was muffled. I tried freeing my hands but they were tightly bound.

Someone was grabbing me by the ponytail and I could feel my roots pulling.

They were carrying me somewhere. My heart was pumping hard and my blood was filled with nervousness.

I tried kicking my legs and I hit someone in the face.

"Ow!" It was a distinct yell but I couldn't place my hand on it. My arms were let free with my struggle and I blindly tried to untie my blindfold but someone punched me across my face. I yelled and my scream cut across because someone let my mouth free.

I fell to the ground and my fragile back connected to the ground. It was scary. I couldn't see anything and I couldn't see my attackers. I could feel blood dripping out of my nose.

It was at least three attackers and there was one of me.

"Help!" I yelled. The chances of someone hearing me was slim to none. There was no one in the corridors and it was in the dead of the night.

Someone jumped on me, pinning me to the ground. I felt that person press their hand against my mouth and I felt the other two people lift me up. This time, they made sure that my legs were tightly bound.

I felt something in my shoe. It was my knife!

I just had to find a way to get it and use it.

I tried wriggling myself out but these people were too strong. I was too weak.

I heard rushing waters around me. I was near the chasm. I felt the railings pressed against my back.

My eyes widened. They were going to throw me over. Their grip on me loosened. I could feel a hand feeling me up.

I felt bile in my throat.

I used that chance to kick them as hard as I could. That person fell backwards and I fell to the floor. I quickly grabbed my knife out of my boot and cut the blindfold off.

My three attackers were coming closer to me. One was clutching their head.

I did a doubke take when I realised who it was.

Al.

After I've been so nice to him...

I felt even more betrayal build up in my chest.

The other two were Peter and Drew.

Before I could do anything else, Peter lunged at me and I swiped the knife for his face.

He yelped and he was clutching his face that was now bleeding. The blood was seeping through his hands and I felt a small sense of pleasure because I made him bleed. I was away from the railing of the chasm. I turned to run away but then Drew came and he tackled me down by the waist.

"Help!" I helped louder this time. My yell blended into the rushing water in the background. Peter came and he spat on my face. He smeared blood around his cheek.

I was on the ground and I dropped my knife. I was at least a metre away from me. I couldn't reach it. Peter kicked me in the ribs and I rolled over onto my side, trying to go closer to my knife.

Peter seemed to know what I was going to do so he stepped on my hand and I swore I heard a crunch in my wrist. He put two hands on my waist and he tried to roll me off the edge of the chasm. I yelped.

In the corner of my eye, I saw someone come out. I got a blow to the head by someone and my head was getting dizzy.

I gasped and my vision went all spotty. I say someone come onto the chasm but I couldn't figure out who. The last thing I saw was a face bending over mines. There were a pair of grey eyes staring into mines.

"Eric." I whispered before I blacked out.


	20. Chapter 20

SORRY GUYS I UPLOADED THIS CHAPTER BEFORE AND SOMETHING HAPPENED. I SWEAR IT WAS UNINTENTIIONAL AND IM SORRY. I'LL MAKE SURE TO CHECK MY CHAPTERS BEFORE UPLOADING THEM TO PREVENT SOMETHING LIKE THAT HAPPENING AGAIN. THANK YOU TO THE PEOPLE WHO TOLD ME IN THE COMMENTS :)

T R I S

I woke up and I felt something cold pressed up against my head. I was lying on something soft. I grabbed onto the sheets underneath me and I sat up, terrified but someone pressed their hands against my shoulder to push me back down onto whatever I was lying on.

I was hyperventilating. Where was I? I was still recovering from just waking up to realise where I actually was. Did Peter manage to haul me to some place or was I dead? The air was cold around me. I couldn't hear any chasm water rushing around me.

My vision cleared and there was someone's face hovering ontop of mines. Grey eyes peered down at me with concerned. The grey eyes that once provided me with comfort, brought me discomfort. My eyes widened in realisation when I realised that it was Eric who was bending over me.

"Its alright." Eric muttered. He pushed his hair out of his eyes and sat back down on his chair that was next to me. His usual light brown hair was darker in colour due to sweat.

Then it came back to me. The attack and Eric saving me.

I tried to get up and get out, away from Eric. He was dangerous, I told myself.

I tried to push myself up with my arms but they were too weak. I groaned when my ribs protested against the sudden movement. My clothes were torn and I suddenly had an urge to cover myself up.

"Tris, you're not well enough. Lie back down." Eric instructed. He took the icepack off my head.

His voice was soothing and I didn't detect any threat in his voice.

I lied down and I sighed deeply and winced when my ribs started hurting. I didn't want to be here right now. I didn't feel like being interrogated by Eric.

"I want to go." I mumbled to Eric. He put the icepack down onto the bedside table.

I got up again but then he pushed me down again.

"What do you want?" I asked in a frustrated manner. If he didn't care about me, then why would he be worrying over my physical state.

"We need to talk." He said firmly. His eyes were steely and they were piercing into mines. I couldn't look away. I could tell that I had no way of getting out of this.

"Well, what do you want to talk about?" I said back, glaring at him.

He noticed my glare and looked away.

"Why have you been acting all weird these past two or so days? Why didn't you meet me in the Pit when I asked you to?" He asked me. His hand was on my arm and I shrugged it off. I noticed that he had a bruised lip and it was cut on the side. His hands were all grazed and bruised.

I felt a rush of concern for him and I asked him what was wrong. I realised that I had grabbed his hands and I was lightly touching them. I looked down at our hands and as much as I didn't want to admit, I did still care about him.

"Dont worry about them. Tell me what's wrong." Eric said, trying to shift the topic back to what he asked just then. He pulled his hands back and he leaned back against the chair he was sitting on.

I looked up at the ceiling and I took a deep sigh. I was hurt and I was dreading to be here right now. At the same time, I knew why he lied to me. It was because he wanted to see if I was Divergent. Some part of me wanted to see if he felt the same attraction that I did. But I couldn't over come the attraction with 'this' in the way.

"Why did you lie to me?" I said quietly, after a few minutes of silence. My stomach tightened, bracing for the answer he was about to give me.

His eyebrows shot a confused look.

"What are you talking about?" He said, defensively. He crossed his arms.

I rolled my eyes at him.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about." I said, looking at him directly in the eye.

"Well I don't. Care to explain?" He asked me, tilting his head.

"Stop trying to deny that you don't know what you did." I said.

It was silent for a few minutes.

Eric had his hand on his forehead. He was facing down onto the ground and his eyebrows were knitted together as if he was contemplating something.

"It was Four wasn't it?" He said to me. His voice had an edge of disbelief in it. He shook his head. He voice was barely above a whisper.

"What do you mean?" I asked him.

"He told you things right?" Eric said. He took his hands off his forehead and he looked at me.

I nodded at Eric and groaned when my neck started hurting again.

He grabbed the icepack that he just put down and he pressed it against my neck.

I muttered a small thanks.

"Whatever he told you, its not true." Eric said. His eyes looked desperate as if he was trying to make me believe whatever he was saying.

"Do you expect me to believe you or something? Do you even know what he told me?!" I almost screeched. Eric backed up further into his chair.

When Eric didn't reply, I ranted on.

"He told me that there was no assignment. He said that you were lying about me and you were trying to get closer to me to see if I was Divergent."

I finished and there were tears in my eyes. All the bundled up emotions cane out and I felt terrible, physically and mentally.

I turned the other way so Eric couldn't see me cry.

"Hey, Tris." He said, gently as if he was careful not to make me cry any worse. He had a hand on my arm, trying to roll me back so I was facing him.

"Tris, I did lie to you and there is no assignment." He said in the the most gentle way possible. His voce was firm.

I wiped some tears off my hand with the back of my hand.

"But I didn't lie to see if you were Divergent. It was because of something else." He said.

"Well, what is it?" I said, hicupping.

He shifted his body uncomfortably and he ran a hand through his messy hair. He gulped and I could tell because his adams apple bobbed.

"I did it because I thought you were fascinating and I wanted to see if I could get to know you better." He said. His eyes looked directly at me, studying my reaction. I felt a spark.

"Why couldn't you just tell me." I said.

"I was afraid that you'd run away from me, like everyone when I talk to them or become close to them." He replied.

His voice was thick with honesty and it was really hard to pick our if he was lying or not.

"How do I know that you're not lying." I said.

I sat up and I tried to suppress all the pain from showing onto my face

I was eye to eye level and I've never felt so scared yet alive before.

"I like you Tris." Eric said slowly, bracing for my reaction. He looked into my eyes. In that moment, I felt scared because I didn't know what was going to happen next.

I raised me eyebrow and I tried to mask the relief and excitement that was bubbling inside of me.

"You can't say that all the training we went through and when we climbed that ferris wheel and all those other experiences were fake. They were genuine and they'll be as genuine as it'll ever be and you know that you felt the same way too. Am I right?" He said.

He grabbed my hand and he looked into my eyes.

"Tris, you're so brave and selfless and I admire that so much. You're so different from other people."

"I believe you." I whispered quietly. He looked into my eyes and his eyes slowly moved down to my lips. I knew what he was thinking and I wasn't planning on stopping him.

Hesitantly, he placed one hand on my cheek, and slowly drew me in. I didn't stop him. My eyes fluttered shut, and I was suddenly aware of the overwhelming warmth of Eric's chapped lips on mine. I felt his hand snake around my waist and pulled me closer. His touch was light, as if he was afraid to hurt me. I put my arms around his shoulders and held him tight, never wanting him to let go. We broke apart momentarily, panting and filled with adrenaline. My heart was beating loudly and I didn't care if he heard or felt my heart beating. It was a reminder that this was all read.

He looked shy with his flushed cheeks. His eyes were closed, trying to relish the moment.

He looked at me and we both laughed as everything that happened within the past few days wasn't real and was pushed aside.

"I like you too." I said to him. He smiled brightly and he pulled me in for a hug, careful not to hurt my ribs. I closed my eyes and I tried my best to remember the moment. I tried to remember the heat of his skin, the smell of him and the feeling of happiness I was feeling at the moment.

"We'll talk tomorrow. You need your rest." He said quietly. He kissed me on the forehead and I laid down onto the bed.

"Where are yoy going to sleep?" I asked him.

"The floor." He said and be left for the bathroom.

The bed was queen sized but I didn't feel ready to sleep in the same bed as him.

I pulled Eric's thick blanket over my shoulders and I went to sleep, smiling. I felt as if every worry in my life was wiped away with just one kiss.

"What am I going to do tomorrow if I see them?" I ask Eric. He knows who exactly I'm talking about. Al, Peter and Drew.

My chest hurt at the thought of Al betraying me. He tried to kill me yesterday.

"Act hurt and defeated." Eric said.

"Why." I asked.

"You need to show them that you were affected by them so they won't hurt you anymore." Eric said to.

I just went to the toilet and did my business and I showerd to wash all the blood off me. Eric offered to help, not in a perverting way but just incase I couldn't move properly. He gave me the smallest shirt he could find and he gave me his sweater. I stayed in my own pants because it wasn't that dirty or ripped.

"Why Al though. I thought he was my friend." I said. My voice broke.

"He felt threatened. He percieved you as weak and he just felt unstable with you rising so high in the ranks, while he is going down the ranks. Peter is decieving and he probably decieved al into helping him." Eric said quietly.

I nodded and I closed my eyes and tried to push away the flashbacks of Peter, Al and Drew attacking me.

I gulped and my hand started shaking.

Eric noticed ans he grabbed me hands. "You alright?" He asked me.

His eyes searched mines as if he was looking for answer.

I nodded, trying to reassure myself.

"Do you need to go to the infirmary?" He asked me.

I shook my head. I didn't feel like being hospitalised on a free day.

"I can get you some pain medicine." He offered.

"That's be great." I replied.

I smiled, greatful. If he wasn't there, then I would probably be dead, on thr ground or at the bottom of the chasm.

"Thanks for bringing me back here." I said to him.

He nodded in response. He left for the bathroom and he came back with an object in his hand.

"Here's your knife." He said.

He handed it over to me and I realised that he picked it up from where I dropped it.

"I washed the blood out of it." He said.

"Thanks." I muttered. I rubbed my thumb over the familiar surface of the knife.

"I tucked it under the long sleeve of my jumper.

"I'm really sorry, Eric. I should've asked you about Four's claims and tried to sort it out. You must've been very hurt." I said to Eric.

I placed a hand on his hand.

"Don't worry about it. All that matters right now is that this is all over and we have everything sorted out." He said, thinking about the kiss we shared yesterday.

I went to breakfast and I did what Eric told me to do. I acted weak and I walked as if I was in pain.

Uriah noticed me and he dropped his food and raced over to me, sliding a hand around my waist to support me.

"Thanks." I said.

Uriah sat me down and the entire group bombareed me with questions.

"Tris, what happened."

"What happened last night."

"Are you okay."

"What happened to your face."

"Who did this to you?"

I covered my ears and I shut my eyes, trying to block our everyone's questions.

"Sit her down and when she's ready, she'll talk." Christina said over all of the chatter.

I sat down and I found Eric's eyes from across the room. He gave me a worried look and I gave me a reassuring nodd.

Christina pushed a food plate infront of me and I gladly pushed a cracker into my mouth.

"Peter, Al and Drew tried to throw me over the Chasm last night." I said, making sure that the people in the next table didn't hear me. I decided to be straight to the point.

Their reactions were a range of pity and sadness and worry.

"Al? Are you sure?" Christina asked me.

"Yes. I just don't know why." I said.

"I'm going to kill all three of them." Uriah said, cracking his knuckles.

"Do yoj need tk go to the infirmary or get some ice?" Will asked.

I shook my head but I instantly regretted my decision when my neck started hurting.

Christina hugged me and I winced when she squeezed my ribs too hard.

I tried to eat my breakfast but I couldn't shake the feeling that someone was watching me.

I looked up and it was Four.

He made a hand gesture, telling me to mert him outside of the hall.

I scrunched up my eyebrows in confusion.

"I'm going to pop into the infirmary. I think I just felt something in my ribs." I lied. I grabbed a few pieces of crackers and got up from my seat. I needed an excuse to get out of the room without sounding suspicious.

"I'm going to go with Tris." Christina said.

"Its alright Chris. I can manage." I said, giving her a reassuring smile.

"I can help you." Uriah said but I declined his offer.

I got up and I made my way around the room.

If Four wanted to speak to me now, then it was probably really urgent.

I made my way out of the hall and I prayed that Eric didn't see me leave. He would be really suspicious if he saw me. I look over at Eric's direction and I saw that he was was talking to one of the other Dauntless leaders.

I got out and I met Four. His arms were crossed and his expression was very serious.

"Tris, I saw what happened last night. Are you okay." He asked. His voice was serious and he seemed genuiny concerned with my wellbeing.

"How did you see." I said.

"Security footage. I went through a check this morning and I saw the footage from the Chasm last night." Four said.

"I'm fine." I said to him.

"But the thing is, I saw Eric carry you after you passed out. Do you remember where he took you? Did he hurt you?" Four said. He moved closer to me.

"No he didn't. He took me back to his apartment." I replied, putting on a tone that implied that I didn't want to discuss anything more.

"Tell me if he hurt you. Did he?" Four asked.

His blue eyes looked at my reaction, trying to see if Eric hurt me in some way.

"No he didn't. Stop thinking that Eric is dangerous. He isn't." I said to Four. I was suddenly in defensive mode. I suddenly felt pissed at Four because he made me think that Eric was lying to me and that Eric was dangerous and bad. Thinking about it, I realised that Four had no evidence whatsoever to back up his claims.

"I don't know what he did to make you think that he isn't dangerous but he is dangerous." Four said. What the hell.

"See, you're doing it again." I said.

"Doing what?" He said.

"Making absurd claims with no proof." I said, lifting up an eyebrow.

"I do have proof." He said.

"What is it then?" I replied.

Four opened his mouth to say something but then nothing came out.

"Your opinions are biased because you hate him." I said bitterly.

"In truth, he's really nice but you just hate him so much that you don't stock around long enough to see the good side of him." I continued.

I turned on my heels and stormed away back into the dining hall.

After dinner, I went back to my dorms and I found some medicine with a little note attached to it. I assumed that the note was from Eric. I found no sign of Peter, Drew or Al for the rest of the day and I was glad that all the impurities were out of my day.

For the rest of the day, I stayed in the dorms while Chris and the others went out somewhere. They wanted me to come but I didn't feel like it and they respected my decisions.

I knew that I was exposed and anyone, even Peter could come in but I was too tired to do anything. I took my meds and it helped numb the pain. I propped my pillow up against the wall and my bed and I leaned against it, closing my eyes.

I breathed out and I closed my eyes. I don't know how long I was napping for but then someone gently shook my up.

My first instinct was to whack my hands across whoever was infront of me. The person responded by yelping out really loudly.

"Hey Tris." The person said. Iopened my eyes widely and I took in the person infront of me. My eyes widened and i troed to back up as far as could into the wall.

It was Al.


	21. Chapter 21

**T R I S**

"Al?! What the hell! Get away from me." I yelled. My voice was scratchy and raw so my sentence came out all strained. Al reached out his hands and touched my arm, trying to calm me down. On his arm was a very prominent bruise that was probably from yesterday. I desperately tried to find something that would help defend myself but nothing was in reach that I could grab without Al knowing. No one was in the dorms right now so Al could easily do something to me and get away with it.

"Tris." He said more urgently this time. "I'm not here to hurt you." He said, looking at me straight into my eye, trying to reassure me but he was doing the exact opposite.

His face was battered and bruised and I felt twisted pleasure from it. I silently thanked whoever did this to him. His lip was cut and I felt like if he stretched his mouth too wide, his cut would open and blood would come out.

"Bullshit. You tried to attack me last night and now you're trying to tell me that you're not going to hurt me?! I don't believe you." I snapped, narrowing my eyes into thin slits. His cut lip turned into a frown. It wasn't a frown that meant that he was pissed. It was a frown that showed that he was hurt. His eyes started brimming with tears and I didn't feel any remorse for yelling at him.

"Please Tris, just hear me out." Al said, his voice barely above whisper. His hair was tangled and was matted with dried blood. He smelt of sweat, tears and blood. I looked down at his hands and he quickly retracted them. I hugged my arms and I felt Eric's knife prod me under the sleeve of my jumper.

"I was failing initiation and I was in such emotional distress and Peter told me that if we got rid of you, then I would have a bigger chance to pass." Al said. He sat down on the bed and I moved further away from him. His eyes were wide and searching mines, trying to find any evidence that I believed him.

"But I'm your friend and you chose to trust Peter, the person I absolutely hate." I said with a sneer. I refused to believe him. He noticed my reluctance to believe him.

"I'm sorry Tris. I know its a stupid mistake." Al said, looking down. He wiped a tear away.

"Well that stupid mistake nearly costed me my life!" I said. I grabbed ontot the sheets under me in anger. Al looked down at my hands and then he looked back up at me.

Emotions hit me and all at the same time, I felt betrayed and sad. I pulled my knees up to my chest and tears streaked down my face. I didn't feel like wiping them away.

Al contemplated whether to comfort me or not but he decided against it.

"I'm sorry Tris. You know that the deep Abnegation girl in you would've forgiven me and accepted the apology." Al said quietly, trying to make me see reason with him.

I looked up at him with my bloodshot eyes as if to say that he was really pushing it. I hiccuped and I wiped some tears off my face. I was a complete mess, emotionally and physically.

"Well I'm not in Abnegation anymore. I'm so sorry Al but I don't know if I can forgive you. You're a coward." I said to Al. My tone implied that I was done and I didn't want to talk to him anymore. Some emotion flickered behind his dark eyes. He slowly nodded and got up.

"Thanks for hearing me out." He said quietly. His eyes were sunken and his usual musk was gone. He knew that nothing could change my mind about him and I hoped that he wont come to me again and beg for forgiveness because he didn't deserve forgiveness, well not from me.

He walked out of the room.

I let out a sigh and I pulled out the knife from underneath my jumper. I held it in my hands and I tried to stop crying.

The next morning, I felt like sleeping in. I didn't want to get up even though it was all cold and freezing.

I snuggled up tighter in my blanket and I wished that I was back in Abnegation, where everything was more simpler.

Someone shook my shoulder. I put my head underneath my blanket. I heard someone say that the simulations were postponed from yesterday because we had a free day off. That meant that we had to go through one if the instructor's fears today.

"Tris!" Christina said urgently.

"What?" I mumbled my voice muffled by the blanket.

"Al left." Christina whispered. Her eyes were wide.

"What do you mean he left?" I said. I propped myself up.

"He went to the Dauntless leaders and he told them that he'd quit." Christina said, her voice sounded a little bit happy but I was feeling the opposite of theat.

"Wait, how do you know this?" I asked her. I got up out of my bed and left my sheets unfolded.

"I was out in the Pit when I saw Al and he told me that he was going to quit." Christina said.

"No no no..." I said. It was porbably my fault that he left because I didn't forgive him yesterday night. It was my fault that he decided to leave to the factionless.

"What's wrong?" Christina asked.

"It's my fault that Al left." I said to Christina.

"What do you mean?"

"Yesterday, he came to apologise to me but then I called him a coward and I didn't forgive him." I said, tears brimming in my eyes.

My head was down and both of my hands were holding my head.

"Tris, he attacked you. He betrayed you. He doesn't deserve forgiveness no matter how many times he apologised. He was so close to killing you. You should be glad that he's gone." Christina said gently. She held my hand.

"But he had a whole future here in Dauntless and because of me, it ended." I said. I buried my head in my knee.

"He was going to fail anyways."

After breakfast, word got spread out that Al had left and everyone was sad that he left. Well, they didn't really know what happened.

I took my meds and my soreness dulled to numbness.

We went back to simulation room. Four, Eric and Lauren were already there. Eric looked at me and I turned to look at him. He had an glint in his eyes, a glint that wasn't there before. My eyes briefly flickered down to his lips and I knew that we were both thinking about the kiss. Thinking about it created butterflies in my stomach. I blushed and I turned away from Eric.

There was a warm feeling of happiness that filled me when I thought of it. It reminded me that some good things could happen in such stressful times like initiation. Four went through what we were going through today and they decided that the simulations would happen in respective order of the rankings. My bones chilled when I realised that I was going to go first. The thought of being unfamiliar with what was going to happen in the simulation was scary.

Lauren was administering the simulations since we were going to use her fears. Eric and Four just stayed outside and supervised.

They stayed on opposite sides of the room. Eric was sitting on the side that was closest to me. Uriah brought his cards again and they played with those cards when Lauren called me into the simulation room. I bit my lip and ignored the loud thumping in my heart.

She took a look at me and said. "Congrats on first place, first jumper." She said.

I smiled at her. It struck me when I realised that no one has called me a Stiff for a while. I inwardly smiled.

"How do you know what fear to assign me?" I asked Lauren.

"Eric randomly assigned them." She replied with a shrug.

I sat down on the chair. Lauren had dyed hair and many piercings but her friendly manner seemed to contradict her appearance.

"Don't worry. There is a small chance that one of my fears would be one of yours. Don't freak out." Lauren said with a light smile. She had a lip percing and the hole stretched when she smiled.

I nodded. I rested my head back aginst the worn out headrest and I tried to calm down my relentless heartbeat. _Its not that bad right? I've done it before._ I thought to myself but I couldn't shake off the feeling of uneasiness. It felt as though something bad was going to happen.

Lauren set up the simulation and I closed my eyes, falling into the arms of the simulation.

At first, it was dark and I thought that the fear was being afraid of the dark but then surroundings started to fade into position. I was in a dark alleyway and the air smelt really putrid because of the rubbish bags that were stationed around me. The cold air went through my hair and blew my hair back. I realised that my ponytail was gone and my hair was let out loose. I turned atound and it was a dead end. What was this fear about?

I walked forward, past the rubbish bins and bags that were lining the side of the alleyway. I walked but then the alleyway seemed to be neverending. Even the smell wasn't getting any better as I walked further and further up through the alleyway. I turned around to see behind me but then it looked as though I didn't even move yet. As hard as I tried to advance forward, I just couldn't move forward.

I felt someone pull my arm harshly, lurching me over on my side. Their deathgrip was like a vice on my arm that was winded as tight as it could go. I could feel my blood being cut off and I let out a scream.

"Hey!" I yelled. There was panic in my voice and there was an edge of fear in my voice.

I turned to look at my face and my neck hurted. I recoiled when realised that thr man was faceless. When I turned back around the other way, another arm grabbed my other arm and two other people grabbed hold of my leg. I thrashed around, desperately trying to wriggle myself out. One man pulled out thick ropes from out of nowhere and started to bind my wrists together. The ropes dug into my skin and I cried out in surprise when someone slapped a blindfold over my eyes.

It was happening all over again, like the night when Peter, Al and Drew attempted to kill me. The memory and feeling was crawling back up to the surface. My heart was beating fast and my throat swelled up in panic. My scream was caught midway in my throat and I was too scared to push my words. My eyes were wide behind the blindfold and I was frantically looking around but I saw nothing but black.

My wrists were binded together, I couldn't see and my legs were useless. A feeling of helplessness overcame me and tears started to well up in my eyes and my vision blurred. They spilled and a sob of despair escaped my lips. My hair hung over my face and I yelped when the faceless men turned me over and carried me away from the dead end of the alleyway.

I thrashed around and I was so scared. Suddenly, I felt a jolt at my shoulders.

I sat up in my simulation chair and my arms flailed around, desperate to get out of the binding ropes. I opened my eyes and I realised that I was back in the simulation room. It wasn't real.

My hands went up to my face and my cheeks were wet with tears. Was I crying in my simulation. I looked down to my arms and there were no rope burns or marks. I stretched my legs and they were free. My face contorted with anger. Why did Eric give me this fear when he knew that I was nearly killed?


	22. Chapter 22

***Chapter replaced on the 17/12/16***

 **T R I S**

Peter and Drew have been avoiding me for the past week and I was convinced that they weren't going to hurt me so I got a little bit more sleep. I still couldn't shake off the feeling of when I was in the simulation with faceless people tying me up and blindfolding me.

Two days from today was the final stage of intiation. We were going to go through our fear lanscape and I had a chilling feeling that kidnapping was going to be one of the fears in my fear landscape. Eric had apologised profusely for the past week for what happened last week and he kept asking me if I was okay.

Last night, Eric told me to meet him early in the morning and he didn't give me any specific reason as to why he wanted to see me in the morning.

Now that both of our feelings were let out, I felt more conscious around him and I felt like I cared more about how I looked and acted around Eric.

This morning, I decided to leave my hair down and I put a black hairtie around my wrist just incase I needed it. I wore jogging shorts and shoes and I set off to meet him in the pit.

I made my way through the cold corridors to the pit and I saw him standing there, leaning against the wall and I had to restrain myself from staring.

His grey eyes immediately lit up when he saw me and an unusual warm feeling rushed through me at the sight of him.

"Why are we meeting?" I asked him quietly, my voice echoing around the pit. I looked around to see if anyone was around us.

"Am I not allowed to see you before training?" Eric asked, a teasing smile formed on his mouth and I found myself blushing profusely. I'm just starting to get use to this side of him.

"Anyways, I wanted to go for a run." Eric said, pushing himself off the wall, making his way closer to me.

"Okay." I said, smiling.

"Only if that's fine with you." Eric said, making sure that I was okay with it. I nodded my head. I didn't want to miss any opportunity that lead me closer to him.

The idea of liking him and establishing a relationship with him was completely new but I secretly liked how I was treading in unfamiliar territory to build our relationship.

I took off the blackhairtie from my wrist and I tied my hair up in a ponytail.

"So are we going to run the same route?" I asked Eric. He turned to look at me and then he shook his head. "We're going to run a different path. I'm pretty sure that you'll like this path better." He replied.

"Follow me." He said and he started walking.

I jogged to catch up to his long strides.

"Aren't we going to start in the pit." I asked him, confused.

"No. We're going outside." Eric said, with a smile on his face.

"Like outside as in outside of the compound?" I said.

"Yeah."

"But am I even allowed to go outside."

"Yes, with the permission of a Dauntless leader."

We walked through a familiar path and I realised that it was the way to the net. When I saw the net, memories flooded through my mind.

It was important. It was where I met Eric.

"This is where we met." I said quietly to Eric and he seemed to be thinking about that as well.

He abruptly stopped and he tuened sharply to face me.

"Tris, I'm sorry for threatening you when you jumped down from the net." He said, placing his hands on my arms.

I shook my head and smiled. "Don't worry about it because that lead to where we are right now." I said with a smile.

Of course I was upset when he threatened me when I first came here but that was the past and if I can't put it behind me, then I wouldn't be able to progress with this relationship with him.

"Good." He whispered, his breath tickling my face. His eyes flickered down to my lips and my face flushed knowing what he wanted.

Instinctively, I leaned towards him, craving for his lips against mines again. He tilted his head a a little bit to the side and his mouth joined mined. His chapped lips moved against and it felt as though we've kissed thousands of times.

I sighed against his lips and I parted away from him. We just stared at each other and we didn't need to say any words to each other to convey.

He leaned in again to kiss but I moved away.

"Nuh uh. We need to run" I said with a playful smirk on my face. His mouth formed a pout and I silently liked the effect that I had on him.

"Lead the way, mister." I said, telling him to run and he shook his head, laughing. He ran ahead of me and I followed after him. We ran out of the compound and around the area where we played capture the flag. We ran through some tracks that had some footpath worn into it. I guess Eric ran this path alot?

Anyways, I was enjoying it. My body felt free and the tree leaves would occasionally brush up against my arm. Eric would occasionally look over his shoulder to make sure that I was still alive and following him.

Once we were done, I was puffing more than a steam train and Eric slapped me on the back to stop my wheezing.

"Good job. I didn't think that you could make it the entire way." He said, turning to face me. His body glistened with sweat and his shirt stuck onto his body and this time, I didn't find a reason to look away.

I looked up at his face. "Are you underestimating me?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

He chuckled and started walking off, back towards the pit.

"Where are we going?" I asked him, lagging behind because I was tired from running.

"To shower and clean up." He replied. He abruptly stopped and turned around.

"You're sweating so much and the other initiates will be suspicious." Eric said, scanning me up and down.

"What are you trying to say?" I asked him.

"Come shower at my apartment." He replied simply. His tone implied that there was no double meaning behind it but I interpreted it the wrong way.

"Wait, with you?! Because-" I started freaking out and my head flooded with thoughts.

He started laughing very loudly, to the point where he was clutching his stomach and his face was scrunched up and red.

"I meant shower at my place so you'll go back looking clean and no body will think that you just went running." He said. He looked over at me and chuckled at my flushed face.

"Lets go." He said and he looked up at m with his grey blue eyes and he extended a hand out. His hand was out open, expecting me to hold it. I looked up at his face and back down at his hands. I slowly reached out but Eric grabbed my hand because I was taking too slow.

"What if someone sees us." I said to him, my arm brushing up against his because he were walking really closely.

"They won't." He said and pulled me through some series of dark corridors. If I was wondering through these dark corridors by myself, then I would be very scared but with Eric's hand holding mine, it was like a physical reassurance that everything was fine. After a few minutes of walking, there was a sound of whooshing. It sounded like something I heard around but the sound was louder than usual.

Eric pulled me through an opening and there was rushing water rushing in front of me.  
"Where are we?" I asked him, looking to my left and right.

Eric pointed up and I tilted my head up to where he pointed.

Above, about 100m was the railing that crossed over the chasm.

"We're at the bottom of the chasm." I said in disbelief.

He took notice of my expression and said, " I found it once when I was walking around. I was trying to clear my head and it lead me to here. I wanted to show you this place a long time ago but there wasn't enough time."

I smiled at him.

"Anyways, if we cut across and walk up a few restricted stairs, then we get to my apartment."

"You know. It feels great to be in here when you're not bashed and bruised." I said. I remember the last time I was in here. It was after Eric took me here from the Chasm. I tried to push the memories out of the mind to stop it from ruining the moment.

"Well, it's good to see you in here not bashed and bruised." Eric replied, his smirk appearing on his face again. I took my shoes off before entering the house. Back in Abnegation, we had to take off our shoes before coming into our house to make it more clean. I realised that Eric did that too.

After we both showered, we both stayed back and talked about life in general and we discussed the final tasks. When we decided to leave the apartment, it was too late to go back to the dorms so we decided to go to the cafeteria.

We both went in at different times so we wouldn't come off as suspicious. I got my food and sat down at a vacant table because my friend's weren't here yet. I started to eat my bread that I took from the food line when someone grabbed my shoulders from behind and yelled "Boo!"

I shrieked and my arms flailed and I knocked my cup of water all over my lap.  
I turned around to see who scared me and I was ready to be pissed but my anger evaporated faster than the water did because it was Christina.

"Omg Tris! I'm so sorry." She said, covering her hand with her face. "Its okay. Its just water don't worry." I replied. She gave a me a wary look and she sat down next to me.

She furrowed her eyebrows and she leaned in closer to me and sniffed me. "Is it just me or do you smell different?" She said, raising her eyebrow at me. Oh crap. I used Eric's soap.

"New soap in the bathroom. Its really nice. " I said, smiling as convincingly as I could.

"Oh. It just smells very masculine." She replied. She shrugged if off and she started eating her food when Will came back with two trays, one for Christina and one for himself.

"What are you planning to do today?" I asked Christina.

"How about we go to the spa or something just to relax." Christina said simply. "Just to get our minds off the last stage before tomorrow."

"Tris" Eric said. I looked up and gulped. I was the only one left in the waiting room because they all went before me. They called us up from last to first. So naturally, I had to be last.

Eric was running the test and the leaders were in another room, observing the test. I shakily got up and I wiped my palms on my pants. Eric's lips pulled into a smile and I replied with a shaky smile.

It was quiet when he was setting up the machines. I was too scared and too worried to initiate a conversation. I mentally went through everything Eric told me this morning in his apartment about the final stage. I just couldn't believe that everything was ending so fast.

But what if during the simulation, I reveal that I am Divergent? My mind flooded with thoughts and I started shaking. Suddenly, the room felt like it was closing in and my breathing didn't come as easy as it did a few seconds ago.

My heart was beating faster and I felt tears prickling at my eyes. I felt so out of control at the moment and I absolutely hated it. Just the feeling of control moving away at a pace faster than you can reach was very scary.

"Woah, woah. Tris." Eric said, stopping whatever he was doing at the computer and rushing over to me.

He grabbed my shaking hands with his hands and looked at me in the eye.

"Its going to be okay. We're going to get though this together." He said, concern in his eyes. His eyes searched my face all my worries died down a little bit. It was good to know that I had someone there and that he would be here with me when I went through the simulation. His hands lace in between mines and I reponded with a light squeeze.

"Thanks." I whispered quietly.

**  
"Its over." I whispered to myself after a few minutes of trying to recompose myself.

I was back outside in the waiting room, waiting for Eric. He was talkign with the leaders at the moment and he told me to wait outside with him.

He came into the room and I got up from my seat to envelope him in a hug.  
During the simulation, he had his hand in mines and he was there to calm me down after I woke up.

"I just talked to them and they didn't see any signs of Divergence in any of the initiates." Eric said, pulling back to smile at me. He had light in his eyes and I knew what he was thinking. I was safe now and we can be together.

A thought struck me. What would happen after initiation and how woukd I tell Christina and my friends.

"What's on your mind?" He asked.

"How would I tell my friends?" I asked him.

"When you feel like you're ready to tell them, just tell them orrrrr we can just kiss infront of them. Saves all the talking." He said with a wink.

All the intiates were gathered up under a screen. It was all back at the moment but in the next five minutes, it was going to change into a screen with the rankings on it. The tension was high and everyone was quiet, too scared to talk.

We had an hour break before the announcements and then all of the new initiates had to attend a banquet type of thing and we had three hours to get ready. Luckily, Christina had a few dresses she had in mind to dress me up in.

E R I C

"Congratulations to the top 10 initiates." I said, with the straightest face possible. I was trying to mask my happiness but a smile always tried to creep back onto my face.

I pressed the spacebar on the laptop and a slide appeared.

There were mixed reactions in the crowd, ranging from angry, sad and happy but the person's reaction I could focus on was Tris.

She was crushed in a hug from a friends and they were all congratulating her. She turned around to face me and I just smiled at her, a genuine smile that was only reserved for her only. She came first and

I was going to make my way over to her but she came to me first.

"Congrats." I said.

She replied with a bone crashing hug. I stood there, unable to move with my heart beating so hyperactively. I wrapped my arm around her. Everyone was too busy to see us hugging but even if they saw, I didn't care.

We could be together without initiation hindering the way.

"See you at the banquet." I whispered in her ear. She pulled back and said, "Okay."

T R I S

Christina's dresses were too provocative for my liking. The dresses were beautiful on her because it accentuated her curves.

Her dress was a deep crimsom and it dipped at the front and showed her bare back. It stopped midthigh. Her hair was out crimped and she had smokey eyes that blended from black on the inside to red. She caked her face with concealer and foundation and she applied a thin line of eyeliner. She contoured her hairline, cheekbone, jaw and her boobs.

My outfit that she chose was a simple sweetheart-neckline, silk, grey dress that had folds along the top and fanned out near the knee. It hugged my waist and my small chest and made my hip curve more prominent. There were sequins of beads along the bottom and along the top. She just curled my hair, put on eyeliner and a bit of blush.

The last thing she gave me were a pair of heels that woukd definitely make me trip over if I tried to walk a metre. After a minute of arguing, she finally settled with 2 inch heels with padding inside so I wouldn't get blisters.

"Thanks." I said to Christina, greatful.

"If you like it then, no problem." She said, standing behind he. Because of her heels, she was almost as tall as Eric and I was deciding whether or not to tell her.

"Christina, I need to tell you something." I said quietly and I turned around. I knew that this situation could go both ways. She might react angrily or happily. Anyways, it was better to tell her now than stall until later.

"Go for it." She said, checking her eyeliner in the mirror.

"This is serious." I said with a firm tone.

She backed away from the mirror and leaned against the wall.

"Eric and I are together." I said with a deep breath. Because I was nervous, it came out all bunched together.

"What?" She said.

"Eric and I are together." I repeated, more slowly this time.

She blinked for a few seconds and then she yelled, "I KNEW IT."

I covered my hands with my ears.

"What do you mean?" I asked her.

"It was just a guess at first because the way he looks at you. They turned from some kind of hate to interest to admiration and then I knew something had changed when you started looking at him the same way." She replied.

Now it was my turn to blink like a lost animal.

"Why didn't you come and ask me." I said.

"If I were in your shoes, then I would lie to avoid people thinking that I was trying to get through initiation theough Eric." She replied.

"You don't think that right?" I asked her quietly.

"No. You're not the type."

"But do you accept our relationship. Don't you hate him."

"No but if he can treat you right than I'm happy with that." She said with a smile.

"Thanks for understanding." I said to her. 

.


	23. Chapter 23

_**ALL THE CHAPTERS HAVE BEEN FIXED. I'M TERRIBLY SORRY FOR THE MIXUP :(**_

T R I S

As we were walking to the banquet, we were catcalled a few times in which Christina responded to cursing them back and I just ducked my head and started walking. We had directions from the dorm, pointing us to the room.

Obviously, I wasn't use to people giving me so much attention.

The banquet was held in a separate room from the dining hall. It had more decoration in it and obviously, the food was better. The leaders told us to enjoy it while we could because this was the only banquet we would probably have during our time in Dauntless unless we become a Dauntless leader.

When we walked into the banquet, there were two unenthusiastic people who greeted us at the door. They were two people with monotonous faces and they looked like they were paid to wear a suit and stand at the door.

"What is your name?" Said the person on the right with a clipboard.

"Tris and Christina. We're initiates. Wait no, I mean members." Christina, smiling widely.

The person looked down at his clipboard and then stepped aside to let us through.

"Enjoy your evening." The other person said, monotonously.

"Thanks." I whispered quietly. They just looked at me with blank eyes.

"They sure know how to sound happy." Christina muttered.

The room was magnificent. There was a huge chandelier hanging at the top that gliterred. The room was a bright yellow-white colour and there were candles on the walls that provided a glow of warmth. The walls were draped with huge black curtains and there were tables spanned around the room for us to sit and eat. At the front was a massive dancefloor and there was a dj booth at the corner. There were huge speakers situated around the room that blasted loud music. The floor vibrated and the wine glasses on the table shook. I saw Max making his way around the room to the dj. He then leaned down to tell the dj something. The dj nodded and then turned the music down. Now the music was at a safe volume where it wouldn't burst my eardrums. There was a foreign song playing. I could tell that it was pop music.

The room felt like we weren't in Dauntless at all. Dauntless was dark and informal but this room was lavish, the complete opposite.

"Wow." Christina breathed out.

"I didn't know Dauntless had a room like this." I said to Christina.

"Yeah me too." She replied. We broke off when she saw Will across the room. He was wearing a suit like the other men in the room. I looked at the room to try find Eric but it was harder and harder as more people came into the room.

I sat down at the nearest chair and decided that Eric can find me because I wasn't bothered to find him.

"Excuse me mam, ther are specific seating arrangements. Please go to your allocated seat." A man said and I got up and sighed.

He directed me to my table and there was a card on the table, telling me that this was where I was suppose to sit.

It was a small card with a black curly border with my name in cursive in the middle. I looked at the placecard next to mines and saw that it was Eric. I inwardly smiled.

"Guess I'll be sitting next to you." A voice said from behind.

"Eric." I breathed out. I turned around and I took a deep breath in surprise. He looked different. His hair was neatly gelled and he took his peircings and he was wearing a crisp suit.

He looked different in a good way.

He seemed taken aback by my appearance as well.

"You look-" we both started at the same time.

"Beautiful."

"Handsome."

We both smiled at each other.

"Eric. I think I'm ready to tell the rest of my friends that we're dating." I said firmly.

"Are you sure?" He replied.

"Yeah because all of the initiates are here, I can show them or tell them all at once and I'm sure that you have some friends here as well." I to him, looking around the room.

I looked back at him and he suddenly looked really sad and I understood why now.

"I have no friends." He replied flatly.

"Oh I'm-" I started but Eric interrupted.

"But I have you and that's all I need." He replied quietly and blood rushed to my cheeks.

"Thats sweet." I said.

"Sweet words for a sweet person." Eric replied with a chuckle.

Soon, everyone was here. On my table was Marlene, Uriah and a girl named Lynn. They sat down at the table and they were confused as to why Eric was on our table and I told them that we were dating. Firstly, they were disbelieving and they thought that it was some kind of joke so they made us kiss. Surprisingly, they were very supportive and understanding.

"So have you guys done the deed yet?" Uriah asked, wiggling his thick eyebrows and I quickly replied with a sharp "No."

"Well if you are, use protection." Marlene said to me, whispering the last part. She slipped something onto my lap and realising what was, I quickly threw it back to her.

"So how long have you guys been together." Asked Lynn. Her voice was low and full of curiousity.

"A little bit over a week." Eric replied.

I was glad that no one thought that I made it through initiation because of Eric. Technically he did help me but he didn't directly tamper with the results and scores to make me get through.

They asked me a whole bunch of questions and we both answered it. I could tell that they were tense in the presence of Eric and that they weren't use to Eric doing anything other than being sadistic.

Four was one of the latecomers. He came in halfway during the main course. The past few days have been so full of things that I totally forgot about my fight with Four.

I looked at him as he made his way to a table and he looked over at me. He did a double take as he realised who I was. He gave me a quick smile and I just looked at him blankly back. Does he expect me to be happy around him after what had happened.

Max got onto the stage with a microphone and explained what was going on in the banquet.

"First, we will serve you entree, main and desert courses. After, that, we have some special performances and then we will play music and you guys can dance on the dancefloor, " Max said, "you guys deserve it."

Some waiters came out with some drinks if alcohol in a bucket full of ice.

"Yess!" Uriah shouted out and Marlene slapped him across the head for being so loud.

Eric reached out and grabbed a bottle from the bucket and opened it. He then poured some into his wine glass. It was a liquid that was in some shade of red.

The smell immediately came up in my nose and it was very strong.

Eric turned to me and offered some.

"What is it?" I asked.

"Wine." He replied.

"No thanks." I replied. I decided to stay clear of alcohol. I've heard of the things it does and I didn't want to be a recipient of the effects.

He had a small smile on his face and I realised that he was happy that our relationship was publicly displayed now.

"Okay, its your choice." He said and then he closed the bottle.

Soon, they served the three courses and it was very delicious. There was way more effort put into the production of these courses and I just tried to remeber the taste of them while I could.

If this food was a 10, then Abnegation food would be a -10, no offence. There were many spices and herbs put intk the food and it created a combination of flavours that made me sigh in pleasure whenever I took a bite.

"If you become a leader, you get to eat these foods more often." He said, his mouth full.

"Then I'll consider the job option." I said with a smile and his eyes brightened.

"I'd love it if we could work together." Eric said and he grabbed my hand underneath the table.

We continued eating. After we were done, there was entertainment.

There were three bands and they played live music. They were okay I guess. Their music and lyrics didn't really appeal to me.

Eric turned to me to talk.

"So, do you know why Four looks constipated." Eric said, taking a sip of from his glass.

"I don't know." I replied, sipping coke out from my cup.

After the entertainment was done, people went onto the dancefloor and danced.

Christina grabbed my arm and pulled me to the dancefloor. It took me a few songs until I was finally comfortable dancing around people.

After a while, the dancefloor got too crowded and my feet statted hurting so I went back to my seat.

Eric was still sitting there by himself and I realised that his face was getting red and it was a sign that he was tipsy or getting drunk.

He had taken his jacket off and he had a longsleeve shirt underneath with a tie. The sleeves were rolled up to his elbows.

"Did I tell you that you look very hot." He said, reaching out to touch my hair.

"Eric, stop." I giggled, moving his hand out of my hair. I took my heels off.

"I like your hairr." He said, trying to touch it again but I moved his hands away.

"Eric, you're drunk." I replied, stopping him from trying to tip a wine glass over the edge of a table.

"You know I've always found your eyes soooo fascinating. I could look into them and never get bored." He said, trying to poke me in the eye.

I realised that he switched from wine to beer. He poured another glass and downed it before I could stop him.

"Eric.." I warned but he stood up, grabbed my arms and pulled me up.

"Lets dance." He said, laughing.

"Okay then." I replied and followed him out to the dancefloor. I decided to ditch my heels.

We made it out onto the crowded dancefloor and the people around us backed off when Eric came near. The music was upbeat and loud and all I could care about was dancing to it with Eric. I had to admit, he was a great dancer when he was drunk.

We danced together,not slow dancing or the grinding type, but the jumping up and down and moving our arms around type.

Bodies rubbed against us because the dancefloor was crowded. Eventually, people decided to ignore Eric and they came back to the space they left before.

Several times, Eric and I would go back to our seats to take a rest. Eric took that time to down a few more glasses.

If he decided to be ubder the influence of alcohol, then I decided to be the responsible one to take him home safely. It was an hour past midnight but I decided to get Eric home. I was starting to feel weary myself.

At least 90% of the people in here was intoxicated and the air was so thick with the stench of alcohol.

The music was still pumping and the energy of the crowd didn't seem to die.

"Eric, lets get you home." I said, lifting him up and grabbing his jacket from his chair.

He muttered something incoherent and then downed another glass before we made our way out of the room.

"Hey Tris, are you tired." Eric mumbled. He was leaning his weight against me.

"No why." I replied. In truth, I was tired.

"Cuz you've been running through my mind all night." He replied and then he looked up at me in his drunken manner.

I shook my head. Cheesy pickup lines.

"You seem tired so I'm going to get you home." I said and then we started walking, with me supporting most of his weight.

When we got into his apartment, I fished around his pockets until I found the keys and unlocked the door. I pulled him into the apartment and I closed the door behind me.

I made my way to his bedroom and I put him down on his bed but he grabbed my shoulders and pulled me down with him.

"Stay." He whispered. His eyes were looking up at mines and it was silently pleading me.

"Fine." I said and I pulled the covers over him, tucking myself in as well. The sheets were black and silky and it was warm.

He leaned over and pressed his lips onto my forehead. Luckily, he was fast asleep so he couldn't see my flushed cheeks.

My heart was beating fast with Eric next to me. I've never had another man sleep in the same bed as me, so this was a completely new experience for me.

I guess being a part of a relationship meant trying new things with another person.


End file.
